AllThingsD » Windows 8

It's Good for Microsoft, but Are New Windows Stores a Smart Bet for Best Buy?

Jason Del Rey — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:00:57 +0000

When Microsoft and Best Buy this week announced the forthcoming launch of 600 Windows Stores within its retail locations, much of the initial analysis centered around what this means for Microsoft’s retail strategy. As fellow AllThingsD editor John Paczkowski explained, the partnership for Microsoft “is a savvy move — an easy way to dramatically increase its retail footprint via an established big-box player.”

But what about Best Buy, the retail giant looking hard for a turnaround, as it tries to fend off Amazon and other online-only electronics sellers?

First, from a financial point of view, it seems to be a no-brainer.

“If you offer a retailer some money, they typically will take it,” Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group, said in an interview.

The two companies did not release any financial details of the deal, but it’s a safe bet that Microsoft is spending handsomely to help redesign Best Buy’s PC departments into Windows Stores and train 1,200 Best Buy employees to man the new outlets.

Second, the appearance of the new stores appears to be fresher, a bit of an upgrade from the current Best Buy experience. The devices sold within them might be the same, but new wrapping won’t hurt.

Third, adding Microsoft to a roster of mini-stores that already includes Apple and Samsung may push other consumer electronics manufacturers to pursue a similar deal with Best Buy. A brand like Sony, for example, has the breadth of devices that could make sense for a mini-store, Baker told me.

Fourth, it’s a vote of confidence — albeit from a company with its own issues — that brick-and-mortar retail still matters. If you want to take a customer away from a competitor, you do it in the real, physical world.

With these moves, Best Buy is starting to look a little bit more like a tech mall within a store — a setup not uncommon overseas in cases where retailers essentially lease out part of the store to a manufacturer. The difference here, according to Baker, is that Best Buy is still maintaining most of the control, such as deciding how their floors are stocked, making it less likely that the new arrangements will hurt the Best Buy brand.

Will the branded stores within Best Buy alone lead to that massive turnaround? Of course not. As it is, we already know the company has work to do when it comes to its digital presence.

But the new look of the mini-stores — the Windows Store being the most recent example — brings some necessary excitement to a company desperately in need of some. And that certainly counts for something.

A Windows Laptop With an Apple Price, but Less Juice

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:03:48 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Laptop sales have been tanking as tablets surge. The new Windows 8 is off to a slow start with users. And the hybrid machines that claim to work as both tablets and laptops are still niche products. So what’s a laptop maker to do?

Well, most Windows laptop companies are promising to spend this year driving prices down, while continuing to experiment with better hybrid designs. But not Toshiba. The venerable Japanese firm has decided to go upscale, introducing an all-new brand of conventional 13-inch laptops that are positioned as premium products, with prices starting at $1,600.

That over-$1,000 market has long been the territory of Apple. But Toshiba figures it can offer buyers with deep pockets the Windows equivalent of Apple’s popular and much-praised MacBook Air, with premium materials, strong specs and a good warranty. It’s called the Kirabook, part of a new Toshiba brand called Kira.

I’ve been testing a Kirabook for the past five days and I found it to be a good computer whose strongest feature is a brilliant, high-resolution screen. It’s a speedy and reliable machine that’s thin and light without feeling cheap.

The Kirabook’s strongest feature is its high-resolution screen. It’s speedy, thin and light without feeling cheap.

But I consider it overpriced for what it offers. It actually costs more than a MacBook Air, but with much worse battery life, an older processor and a design that looks like a lot of other grayish, metallic laptops.

There are three models. The top one, which costs $2,000, is distinguished mainly by its use of a very fast processor that average consumers won’t need. The other two models are identical, except the entry-level offering, at $1,600, has a standard, non-touchscreen. The middle model, at $1,800, which I tested, has a touchscreen.

The MacBook Air also has a non-touchscreen, but that’s because its operating system, Mac OS X Mountain Lion, isn’t designed for touchscreens. By contrast, Windows 8 is a touch-centric operating system, and I don’t recommend consumers buying Windows 8 computers to opt for non-touchscreens. So the least expensive Kirabook that works optimally with its operating system costs $1,800.

How do those prices compare with Apple’s, which have traditionally been higher than those of most Windows PCs?

Well, the base $1,600 Kirabook with the non-touchscreen includes a generous 8 gigabytes of memory and a 256 GB solid-state drive. The base 13-inch MacBook Air, whose price was cut $100 just Monday, costs $1,099. But when configured with the same amount of memory and solid-state storage, it costs $1,399, still about $200 less than the non-touch Kirabook and $400 less than the touchscreen model.

The two machines each weigh a hair under 3 pounds and are roughly 0.7-inch thick, though the Toshiba is a bit thicker. It also has a smaller footprint. The Kirabook has a magnesium alloy body that Toshiba claims is 100 percent stronger than the aluminum used for the body of the Air.

The Kirabook’s biggest advantage is its high-res screen. It is almost as sharp as the one on Apple’s higher-end 13-inch laptop, the MacBook Pro with Retina display. That MacBook starts at $1,499 and is $1,699 when configured with the same memory and storage as the Kirabook. The Kirabook’s screen resolution is so high that text can get uncomfortably small. I was forced to use a built-in Toshiba utility to actually lower the resolution a bit for this reason.

The Kirabook has three USB ports to the Air’s two, and Toshiba throws in a two-year warranty, while Apple’s standard warranty is just one year. The Kirabook also has an HDMI port, for easy connection to a TV, which the Apple lacks.

In addition to its high price, the biggest downsides of the Kirabook are Windows 8, whose two very different user interfaces can be confusing; mediocre battery life; and the fact it uses older processors.

By contrast, as of Monday, the MacBook Air uses the latest Intel processors, just out, which promise huge increases in battery life and better graphics. The Kirabooks aren’t due to be upgraded to these new chips till the fourth quarter.

These new processors and battery life are closely linked. Apple claimed this week that, with the new chips, the 13-inch MacBook Air can get up to 12 hours of battery life between charges. That isn’t a typo. (Stay tuned for a review of this revamped Air.)

However, even with the same, older Intel chips, the MacBook Air handily beat the Kirabook in battery life. In my tough battery test, where I turn off power-saving features, keep the Wi-Fi on to collect email and play music until the battery dies, the Kirabook lasted four hours and 27 minutes. The MacBook Air rates over six hours on the same test.

Overall, the Toshiba Kirabook is a very nicely built PC, but for its premium price, it ought to have the latest components, more distinctive design and better battery life.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Zynga Layoffs and the NSA on Your Phone -- 10 Things You Need to See on AllThingsD This Week

Eric Johnson — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:00:40 +0000

In case you missed anything, here’s a quick roundup of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

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Acer Aspire R7's Bold Design Backfires

Bonnie Cha — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:00:41 +0000

If you’ve gone laptop shopping lately, you might have noticed that the designs are getting a lot more interesting. There are notebooks that twist, flip, slide and detach. And just when you thought you’ve seen it all, along comes the Acer Aspire R7.

The Windows 8 laptop, which costs $1,000, features a pivoting touchscreen that allows you to position it at different angles, including on top of the keyboard, so you can use it as a tablet. It’s a slightly different take on the convertible laptops that are already out there, but one of the things that makes the Aspire R7 stand out is that Acer has switched the position of the keyboard and touchpad. (Yes, you read that right, and, no, you’re not living in Bizarro World.)

[ See post to watch video ]

The idea behind the move is to make the touchscreen, not the touchpad, the focal point of all interactions. On the one hand, I applaud Acer for trying something new, but on the other hand, it doesn’t really work.

I’ve used the Aspire R7 as my primary computer for the past few days, and though I have come to rely on the touchscreen more, there are still times where the precision of a touchpad is needed, and having to reach over the keyboard to use it is awkward. Plus, the laptop’s larger size doesn’t make for a good tablet experience. Sadly, these design quirks trip up an otherwise solid laptop.

The Aspire R7 is not what you’d call a thin-and-light notebook. Encased in an aluminum chassis, it measures 14.83 inches wide by 10.02 inches tall and 1.12 inches deep, and weighs 5.29 pounds. By comparison, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, another Windows 8 convertible laptop, measures 13.1 inches wide by 8.9 inches tall by 0.67 inch thick, and weighs 3.3 pounds. Along the left and right sides are multiple connectors, including two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port and an SD card reader.

It’s solidly built, but it wasn’t easy to tote around or use as a tablet. Instead, it felt more like a compact all-in-one PC, and with its pivoting display it looked sort of looked like one, too.

The 15-inch, 1,920 by 1,080 pixel touchscreen is mounted to an adjustable arm, and can be maneuvered into different positions, thanks to a hinge design — something Acer calls the Ezel hinge. There are four ways to use the Aspire R7: Notebook, Ezel, Display and Pad.

As soon as you open up the laptop, you’re in traditional notebook mode. Then you can pull the display toward you to gain better access to the touchscreen (Ezel mode), or flip the screen all the way over if you just want to enjoy your media files in Display mode. Finally, Pad mode allows you to lay the touchscreen on top of the keyboard, so you can use it like a tablet.

I have to say I really liked the ability to adjust the position and angle of the screen. My vision isn’t what it used to be, so being able to bring the display closer to me was helpful, especially when using the computer in darker environments. I can’t do that with my MacBook Air.

But, as I mentioned, the position of the keyboard and touchpad pretty much negates any benefits of the pivoting display. While it’s a change to have the keyboard closer to me, and I found it roomy and easy to use, interacting with the touchpad was just weird.

In a way, Acer was successful in its goal of creating a more touchscreen-friendly environment. Compared to some of the other Windows 8 computers I’ve tested, like the Sony Vaio Tap 20, I used the touchscreen a lot more for tasks like launching applications and navigating through menus, simply because it was easier than using the touchpad.

Still, there are multiple scenarios where I wanted the control of a touchpad, such as when I was clicking on Web links or inserting a cursor into a certain spot. Having to reach across the keyboard and click on the touchpad was uncomfortable, and it’s something I never got used to during my time with the Aspire R7. By the end of the week, I just connected a mouse because I grew so frustrated with the whole experience.

The Aspire R7 also makes for an awkward tablet because of the laptop’s larger size. It’s not something you can easily hold to read e-books or view videos. In addition, the display doesn’t lie exactly flat against the keyboard. Instead, the screen tilts at a four-degree angle, which Acer says helps for browsing, writing or drawing on the laptop. But I think it makes for an even more cumbersome tablet.

As a laptop, the Aspire R7 offers midrange features. It’s powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and has a 500 gigabyte hard drive, 20GB solid-state drive and 6GB of RAM. In addition to Windows 8, Acer ships the laptop with a bunch of extra software. I found some of it useful, like iCookbook for looking up recipes, but others — like Acer’s proprietary software — I could have done without.

I used the laptop for basic word processing, surfing the Web and streaming video from services like Netflix and Hulu, and it performed smoothly, without any noticeable lag. The display is sharp and bright, and with four integrated stereo speakers, sound was loud and rich.

In my harsh battery test, where I turned off all power-saving features, turned the screen brightness to 100 percent, kept Wi-Fi on to fetch email in the background and played a continuous loop of music, the Aspire R7 only lasted three hours. That’s an hour and a half less than the Lenovo Yoga 13, and three hours less than the MacBook Air. That said, the Aspire R7 has a larger display than the other two laptops, which can affect battery life. Also, I was able to get four hours and 35 minutes of battery life when watching video with the screen set to 75 percent brightness with Wi-Fi and email running in the background.

Acer gets points for coming up with a new design. Without taking risks, we’d be left with a bunch of laptops that look and act alike. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out this time. The Aspire R7’s ergonomic issues make it difficult to use, and until the company can resolve those issues, it’s best to hold off on buying it.

Microsoft Posts Video of Windows 8.1 in Action

Ina Fried — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:36:03 +0000

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft is trying to address some key criticisms of the major overhaul it undertook with Windows 8.

The company has been dribbling out news of its new features, including more personalization, deeply integrated Bing search and the option to boot straight to a traditional Windows desktop.

Speaking at Computex overnight, Microsoft showed off some of these features, and posted a YouTube video showing the forthcoming operating system in action. It has also said it will release a preview version on June 26 at its Build conference in San Francisco.

The final version will be a free update from Windows 8, and is due out later this year.

Here’s the video:

Microsoft to Offer Discounted Windows and Office for Small Tablets, While Windows RT Gets Outlook

Ina Fried — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 07:30:02 +0000

Microsoft is making two big changes that could boost the appeal of smaller Windows tablets.

First, it is adding a version of its Outlook email and calendar app to Windows RT — the version of Windows 8 that runs on ARM-based chips from Qualcomm and Nvidia. Prior devices, such as Surface RT, came with only Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, along with a custom email and calendar program.

“We’re always listening to our customers and one piece of feedback was that people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Second, Microsoft is cutting some sort of deal with computer makers that want to bundle Windows 8 and Office Home and Student onto a seven- or eight-inch tablet. Microsoft isn’t going into detail on what it is charging PC manufacturers, but it is clearly low enough to enable some pretty inexpensive tablets.

The first of these tablets to be announced, Acer’s Iconia W3, has a $379 sticker price. That’s pretty darn cheap for a machine that includes full-blown Windows and Office.

Microsoft isn’t saying which other computer makers may also be working on small tablets, but with the PC market struggling, it seems reasonable to think we will see a number of such tablets in short order.

And while Microsoft’s bundle program appears limited to small tablets, one could conceivably hook up the tiny tablet to a monitor and keyboard and use it as a home PC.

Microsoft is announcing the new Windows options at a speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Windows 8 Hits the Small Screen as It Arrives on Eight-Inch Acer Tablet

Ina Fried — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:53:09 +0000

Acer on Sunday announced what is expected to be the first of many smaller tablets from PC makers running the full version of Windows 8.

The Taiwanese computer maker announced the Iconia W3, a 1.1-pound, Intel-powered tablet that also comes preloaded with the home and student version of Office.

“With the Iconia W3, Acer is giving those who create, read, work and play in the Windows environment a device they can hold in one hand that does it all,” Acer chief marketing officer Michael Birkin said in a statement.

The device will come in 32 gigabyte and 64GB versions, and will be available for preorder starting Tuesday. The 32GB version carries a $379 suggested price, and the 64GB version has a $429 sticker price, but even lower prices may be out there when the devices go up for order on Tuesday.

The Iconia W3 debuted at a press conference at the start of the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan. Acer also introduced the Aspire S7 and S3 Ultrabooks, and the Liquid S1 phablet.

The S1, due to start selling in the third quarter, is Acer’s first entry into the phablet space, and packs a quad-core processor and a 1280-pixel-by-720-pixel screen onto a 5.7-inch display. Among its features is the ability to multitask with one app, such as Caller ID, floating above another.

PC Makers Fight Back Against Mobile Devices

Don Clark and Eva Dou — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:30:36 +0000

Rocked by the mobile-device movement, personal-computer makers and their partners are planning a counterattack that leans heavily on two weapons: Lower prices and power consumption.

The companies, gathering for the big Computex trade show in Taiwan this week, are maneuvering to win back consumer spending that has shifted to smartphones and tablet computers by emulating more of those devices’ features and prices.

In one key thrust, manufacturers plan to begin offering much less expensive laptop computers that have touch screens for tablet-style operation. Prices later this year are expected to drop more than 50 percent in some instances. Manufacturers are also expected to begin delivering thinner and less costly “two-in-one” convertibles, whose screens swivel or can be detached to operate in tablet or clamshell mode.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Steven Sinofsky: The Full D11 Interview (Video)

Ina Fried — Thu, 30 May 2013 19:37:27 +0000

Steven Sinofsky is talking to lots of companies these days. He’s meeting with big companies, small companies and plenty of venture capitalists.

But as for what he wants to tackle next, Sinofsky said he isn’t sure. Nor is he in a hurry to figure things out.

“I’m not in a big rush,” he said, speaking at D11 on Thursday.

While hesitant to revisit much of the internal politics that governed his time at Microsoft or his exit, he did reflect some on the challenges of making big changes like those done with Windows 8 and offered some observations on the iPhone (it’s very nice as long as it does what you want to do) and Android (it’s very open with all the good and bad that entails).

Here’s the full video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Full D11 Conference Coverage

Why Hasn’t Windows 8 Revived PC Sales? (Video)

John Paczkowski — Thu, 30 May 2013 17:29:43 +0000

When Microsoft introduced Windows 8 last year, PC makers jilted by consumers enamored with tablets and smartphones hoped the OS would herald a change in their fortunes. Instead, PC shipments fell. And now market researcher IDC is predicting that they will plummet 7.8 percent this year. Why hasn’t Windows 8 revived PC sales? Tough question. And in a Thursday morning interview at D11, former Windows boss Steve Sinofsky tried to answer it. Video below.

[ See post to watch video ]

Full D11 Conference Coverage

Steven Sinofsky Looks Back at Microsoft and Ahead to More Disruption

Ina Fried — Thu, 30 May 2013 16:25:57 +0000

Steven Sinofsky has branched out since leaving Microsoft last year.

The former Windows head is teaching at Harvard, blogging and trying out lots of different technologies. In recent weeks, he has been tweeting from an iPhone and toting around the HTC One.

On Thursday, he’s making his first big public appearance since departing Redmond.

9:26 am: Walt and Kara onstage with Sinofsky.

On leaving Microsoft:

It’s always hard to decide when to change things up.

“You have to pick a time, so I picked a time.”

9:27 am: Walt asks what went into the decision to write a tablet operating system and not restrict it to tablets. Also, what’s your analysis of what appears to be a slow uptake to Windows 8.

Sinofsky: One of the things we tried really hard to do during the development process was be extremely open and transparent about the rationale. Those decisions we made as a team.

Microsoft is now figuring out how to take that forward (they announced some new features of Windows 8.1 earlier Thursday).

As for sales, it’s hard for me to look at selling 100 million of something and not be happy.

9:29 am: So why hasn’t it revived PC sales overall?

Sinofsky: The industry is undergoing a tremendous amount of change. I think that is exciting and it means a lot of opportunity.

It will take a long time for things to play out. It’s exciting but it means while it is going on you have to resist the urge to pick winners and losers. Things are just very different.

The nature of the computer is undergoing a transformation. Form factors of PC is one effect of that but more is going on under the hood. Machines seem off but can be connecting intermittently. That’s a very different paradigm, too. Or the way computers are evolving to be a sealed-case kind of design vs. something that people tinker with and expand over time.

9:31 am: To reach the next billion, you have to seal things up more. I remember when I was 16 and I was looking at cars. My father asked them to open up the hood.

Why are we opening the hood, Sinofsky asked.

Owning a car means fixing a car, his dad told him.

“I am not in the shop class, Dad,” he said “That’s other people.”

Same thing is now going in PCs.

9:33 am: Kara: We’ve seen this train coming for a while. Why didn’t Microsoft shift faster?

Sinofsky: Hoepfully you don’t just want to jump out of the way. You want to move forward with the train.

Microsoft did make a few big transitions, he notes, reacting and changing with the Internet, the shift to cloud computing, etc.

“It’s essentially just a management challenge. It’s very rarely a shortage of ideas.”

9:35 am: Another thing that Sinofsky did was he very enthusiastically headed up Microsoft’s effort to make its own hardware.

Sinofsky holds up a Surface RT.

“I’m doing this for Panos (Panay),” he said, referring to the head of Surface.

9:36 am: Walt: How much friction was there in getting Microsoft to do this?

Sinofsky: What you are seeing in the industry overall is everybody is sort of in everybody’s business. That co-opetition is now much broader than anybody thought it would become.

Companies give away what other companies charge for and that creates disruption. Everybody that makes parts is looking at which parts to deliver.

9:37 am: After years of not doing it, why does it make sense to make your own hardware?

Sinofsky: When you sum up all of the parts of the ecosystem, delivering a great experience is about the connections between all of those parts.

That’s an engineering thing. There are real people that have to sit in an office and have the right code to connect two things. You have to choose which things you are connecting.

9:39 am: Kara: Can you assess the broader landscape? Who is doing it right?
How do you look at a Google or an Apple?

Sinofsky: The whole tech industry is delivering a ton of innovation, he said, something we all lose sight of.

Okay, Walt and Kara say. Having said all that, what do you make of Google and Apple?

Sinofsky: He holds up an HTC One — we are all HTC One users these days. There are positive and negative challenges at Google and Apple.

Using this Android phone. It is amazing in its openness and all its variety. But then the seams, the software that duplicates things. Because of the duplicate home screen thing it actually thinks I am in Portland, Maine, right now.

The design language shows that openness. Lots of dialogue boxes asking if you want to open this program or that program. Those are hard challenges.

Having many people be part of your success, by the way, is a big force multiplier, he said, something Microsoft long benefitted from with Windows.

On Apple: It’s beautiful to use an iPhone — as long as you want do the things it supports.

Apple deserves a lot of credit for iMessage, for example. “It’s really, really nice. But they have to innovate there.”

WhatsApp and WeChat are adding lots of features. But then those services have integration challenges.

The subtlety of being open is hard to get across. There are nefarious app developers out there. Not malware but just developers trying to make their app get seen.

They might have a great calculator but they want to show up everywhere.

(This used to happen all the time with Windows where security and RealPlayer and other apps would pop up all the time in an effort to compete with rivals and, in some cases, Microsoft’s own software.)

9:48 am: Walt and Sinfosky talking about the challenges of app stores and curating when you have a million apps.

All people who do stores — whether for apps or music and video — have to be thinking about better ways of doing without just letting wealthy players buy their way to the top.

Home pages, shopping sites all face that challenge.

“We’re just so early in all of this,” Sinofsky said.

9:51 am: Kara: Where do you want to work next? Would you go to Apple or Google?

Sinofsky: Right now I am in learning mode. Learning by writing, but teaching and visiting in the Valley a lot. That’s tough in the woods in the Northwest, he said.

I am learning a lot, working with small companies, medium companies.

“I’m not in a big rush,” he said, likening his current position to a sabbatical.

9:53 am: On to Q&A.

Does Microsoft have a problem being in the flow of ideas?

Sinofsky: It’s just a general problem of being part of a giant organization anywhere and trying to integrate with other organizations. Large organizations always have a hard time meeting with small organizations.

9:55 am: Is Microsoft best positioned to handle the changes of the enterprise?

Sinofsky: Oh absolutely. One of Microsoft’s core strength is in the enterprise.

9:56 am: What about the innovator’s dilemma? Can companies that have led one wave lead in the next? Even Apple, is reluctant to change the iPhone quickly.

Sinofsky: Business is a social science, not an actual sicence. You can’t draw causal lines. There are no algorithms. As for innovator’s dilemma, it is true that if you don’t do anything it will happen to you. If you act, then you are part of the innovation (and therefore have a chance).

10:00 am: Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have this flat look; iOS sounds like they are moving in that direction. What are your thoughts on flat vs. the other (known as skeumorphic design)?

Sinofsky: I don’t know more or less than what I read about what Apple is doing. It was exciting to be part of a project that changes the design paradigm. He gives a shout-out to Julie Larson-Green and others who led that effort within Microsoft.

“If people follow it can be even better.”

10:03 am: Last question: Windows 8 had a lot of disruption in it. Do you think Microsoft could have done more to make that transition easier?

Sinofsky: “Any time you change a product you introduce that challenge if you have any installed base at all.”

If you have no market or customers then you are only disrupting other companies. “That’s a balance you face in anything you do.”

After a product comes out you can do more or less based on reaction. “There’s no magic answer.”

As Tim Cook said, customers pay you to make a set of choices.

Full D11 Conference Coverage

Windows 8.1 Will Feature More Bing, More Personalization and a Boot-to-Desktop Option

Ina Fried — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:00:46 +0000

With a forthcoming update, Microsoft will improve on the Windows 8 start screen while also offering up a new option to bypass the tile interface and boot directly to the traditional desktop.

Windows 8.1, due out later this year, will offer new options to personalize the lock and home screens, more deeply integrated Bing search as well as a new version of the Internet Explorer browser. Files can also be saved to Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service.

Microsoft has been dribbling out details about the free update, previously code-named Windows Blue, since early this year. A preview version is due next month at Microsoft’s Build developer conference.

Although Microsoft has sold more than 100 million licenses for Windows 8, the operating system has come in for a fair share of criticism for its steep learning curve and failure to reignite the PC market.

Windows 8 is the company’s huge bet to transition its desktop operating system into software that can power everything from small tablets to giant, multi-screen computers using both touch input as well as keyboard and mouse. The company bills it as a no-compromise solution, but critics say it offers the best of neither world.

Samsung Schedules June 20 London Event for New Android, Windows Gear

Ina Fried — Mon, 27 May 2013 17:34:22 +0000

Samsung on Monday announced that it will hold an event in London next month, presumably to launch new devices in its Android and Windows lines.

The company sent out an invite for its June 20 “Samsung Premiere 2013,” promising news on both the Ativ and Galaxy Brands. Samsung uses Galaxy for its line of Android-based phones, tablets and cameras, while Ativ is used for Windows phones and tablets.

The event will be held at the Earl’s Court exhibition center in London, and will also be Webcast on YouTube, Samsung said in the invitation.

Lenovo’s Horizon PC Turns Your Coffee Table Into a Touchscreen Game Center

Lauren Goode — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:20 +0000

What kind of computer comes with an explicit warning not to rest your coffee cup on it?

A computer like Lenovo’s new IdeaCentre Horizon PC does -– and with good reason. This 27-inch computer transforms from a standard all-in-one into a giant touchscreen tabletop display.

When the Horizon is upright, it’s running Microsoft’s Windows 8. Slide down the kickstand in the back and lay the thing flat on your coffee table, and it automatically jumps to “Aura” mode, a Lenovo-created interface for playing games with friends and family.

I’ll admit that I was quick to poke fun at the Horizon when I first saw it at the International CES trade show earlier this year. I enjoyed giving the games a test drive at the time, but I was wondering if a computer this size could really have a place in my small Manhattan apartment. I don’t even have a coffee table.

[ See post to watch video ]

After using the Horizon on a dining table for the past week and a half, I’ve been able to fully assess it. I like it, mostly because having a second large display at home is great for media consumption. But I still wouldn’t buy it. At the end of the day, it’s a niche product.

And, it’s pricey: Lenovo is currently selling its top model, which has a third-generation Intel Core i7 processor and eight gigabytes of memory, for $1,849. A slightly less powerful model, with a Core i5 chip, costs $1,699.

On June 23, Best Buy will begin offering the Horizon for slightly less: $1,599 for the Core i7 configuration, and $1,499 for the i5 model with only 6GB of RAM.

That’s still more expensive than the Sony Vaio Tap 20, a hybrid PC/tablet that starts at $880. And Asus’s 18-inch Transformer AiO, a similarly-designed computer that runs both Windows 8 and Google Android operating systems, costs $1,300. So if you’re looking for a PC that can also be used like a large tablet, there are more reasonable options.

And if you just want a tablet for game playing and watching videos, well, you can spend $400 and get a pretty good one.

Lenovo says there are a few reasons why the Horizon is so expensive. First, and most obvious, is the size of the display. Then, there’s the preloaded game software — nine games total, including three from Ubisoft, one from EA and five developed by Lenovo. Some of those games require accessories, like e-dice, joysticks and strikers, which are thrown into the mix. Lastly, it comes with a one terabyte internal hard drive.

Let’s say you’re willing to splurge for all this, and the family-centric games are a big draw for you.

As I mentioned, it’s running on Windows 8, and if you’re not super familiar with Microsoft’s newest operating system, there will be a learning curve as you adjust to all of the new swipes and gestures, designed with touchscreens in mind.

I tested the Core i5 model. It measures 27.2 by 16.9 by 1.17 inches, and weighs 18 pounds. Lenovo envisions that users will want to move this computer around the house, but I lugged it from room to room just once, and “lug” is the appropriate description here. It’s definitely not portable. I am not, for example, going to bring it to a friend’s house, or travel with it on a plane to the D11 Conference next week, as I would a tablet.

On the left side of the Horizon is the power button. The right side is loaded with two USB ports, an HDMI port, a media card reader and jacks for headphones and the power cord.

The 27-inch diagonal display is a full-HD multitouch display. It’s nice but not particularly brilliant. Games looked fluid and bright, but when I watched a couple episodes of ABC’s “Scandal” on Netflix, colors were a little washed out.

On to gaming, the main event: The Horizon has a respectable Nvidia processor and 2GB of processing RAM, enough for all of your needs with this computer, but not the kind of power you’d expect with a hardcore gaming machine.

Preloaded game titles include Lenovo Air Hockey, Lenovo Tycoon (Lenovo’s version of Monopoly), Lenovo Fishing Joy, Lenovo Texas Hold ‘Em, and from other publishers, the original Monopoly and Ubisoft’s Raiding Company. It also comes with BlueStacks, an app interface that lets you play Google Android games.

I laid the PC flat on the table, prompting the Aura desktop overlay to appear, and “convinced” my boyfriend to geek out and play games with me. We played a few intense games of Air Hockey, sliding the strikers along the surface of the PC to score. He got hooked playing Lenovo Fishing Joy. Then we started games of both Lenovo Tycoon and the much-better Monopoly.

Rolling the e-dice was, at first, pretty cool. A set of virtual dice in the game would spin and stop moving when the physical dice did. As we took turns in Monopoly, the game zoomed in to show us different spots along the boardwalk, then zoomed back to the whole game board again when it was the next person’s turn to roll.

But I encountered a glitch with the e-dice: When I rolled the physical dice, the virtual dice on screen kept rolling … and rolling …

After a minute or two of excitable dice, we finally unplugged the Bluetooth dongle to disconnect the dice entirely, then started over again.

Overall, playing the games was fun, and I’m sure I could entertain my young niece and nephew for awhile with this. I’d like to see more brand-name games on the Horizon. On a few occasions I went back to the Windows 8 desktop — which appears when you stand the computer upright again — to load up Angry Birds. Lenovo says that more Horizon-optimized game titles are in the works.

When it comes to non-gaming activities on this machine, the touchscreen on a 27-inch display creates a unique dilemma: Sit close enough to touch it, and you’re really, really close to a giant screen. Sit further back to avoid eye strain, and you might not be close enough to comfortably use the touchscreen.

Fortunately, the Horizon also comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard, which I did end up using for email and productivity apps, allowing me to use tactile keys and sit further back from the screen.

Finally, battery life is less than that of the similar hybrids I mentioned earlier, but this is a bigger machine. In the first test I conducted, I bumped up the display to full brightness, played iTunes and had an email application running, and the battery lasted two hours and 22 minutes. During the second test, I streamed videos and played a couple games, and it lasted two hours and 10 minutes.

Now that I’ve tried the Horizon, I’d like a bigger display in my living room. But I wasn’t blown away by the game experience, and I wouldn’t want to pay $1,700 for it.

Microsoft to Name New Software Windows 8.1, and It’s Free

Shira Ovide — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:45:38 +0000

Microsoft announced Tuesday the updated version of its Windows 8 operating system — which had been code-named Windows Blue — will be called Windows 8.1, and it will be available for free to encourage as many people as possible to take up the new software.

The software expected in coming months will effectively be a second launch of Windows 8, the operating system that debuted last October to great fanfare but fairly tepid sales. But the Windows 8.1 name underscores that Microsoft considers the revised software a relatively minor update and not a do-over, which would point to fundamental problems with the original product.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

ATD on Air: A Short History of Instagram, Windows 8's Start Menu and the Future of Streaming Video

John Paczkowski — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:19:42 +0000

In addition to feeding the tireless AllThingsD news machine, our editors also dropped by a few other outlets this week to talk about lots of things, including the fate of long-form journalism in a short-attention-span world and how to restore the Start Menu on Windows 8 until Microsoft decides whether or not to restore it for you. Here’s a rundown of those appearances:

• Kara Swisher spoke with Bloomberg West about her recent article for Vanity Fair magazine chronicling the rise of Instagram and its sale to Facebook:

• Kara also dropped by “Marketplace” for a chat about the place of long-form journalism on small-screen devices. Her take: Mobile devices offer plenty of room for both in-depth journalism and short-form “listicles” like those popularized by BuzzFeed:

• Walt Mossberg appeared on The Wall Street Journal’s “Digits” program to discuss his review of Start8 and Pokki, two third-party utilities that restore the Start Menu to Windows 8:

• Finally, Peter Kafka joined “On The Media” to discuss the future of digital advertising as streaming online video grows in popularity:

The Onion, Yahoo-Hulu and Android on Windows — 10 Things You Need to See on AllThingsD This Week

Eric Johnson — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:18:01 +0000

In case you missed anything, here’s a quick weekend roundup of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

Wondering just how much your new S4 costs? Market research firm IHS pegs the cost of Samsung’s new flagship smartphone at just above $237 per unit.
It planned to do so originally, but Google will not roll out a physical credit card later this month to bolster its “Google Wallet” commerce project.
Everyone who works in Web advertising seems to be talking about the same video ad lately, and here it is: A three-minute-28-second mini-documentary from McDonald’s Canada.
The Onion is best known for its prowess at disseminating false information. But it performed an “awesome” public service this week when it explained in detail just how it got hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.
Brace yourselves: Windows Blue is coming. Yes, Microsoft confirmed this week that an update to the “no compromise” PC-mobile hybrid OS Windows 8 is on the way.
In other Microsoft-related news, BlueStacks’ software that lets you emulate Android apps inside of Windows has been downloaded more than 10 million times. And it’s still in beta.
Mobile videogames currently cater to easily distracted players, but is there room for more thoughtful strategy games? Firaxis Games’ Sid Meier (a.k.a. the Civilization guy) says yes.
Two new iPad apps claim that they can teach children programming skills directly on the tablet. But can they? Lauren Goode puts Hopscotch and Kodable to the test.
It hasn’t made a formal bid, but Yahoo has joined the gang of companies meeting with wanna-sell execs at Hulu.
Social video startup Viddy is returning most of its Series B round to investors and moving people in and out of its board.

To stay on top of the latest, follow AllThingsD on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to our daily email newsletter.

Microsoft: That Windows 8 "New Coke" Analogy Is Silly

John Paczkowski — Sun, 12 May 2013 10:14:16 +0000

Will the launch of Microsoft’s forthcoming update to Windows 8 next month be the company’s “New Coke” moment? Is its rumored plan to revive the traditional “Start” button it killed when it debuted Windows 8 a massive and humiliating reversal of course, following an ill-conceived reimagining of the company’s flagship product?

Not according to Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, Windows 8 is a good product that’s steadily improving, and recent suggestions by the media that it is turning into a “New Coke”-style disaster are pure sensationalism. And in an unusual company blog bost, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications, dismissed them as exactly that, suggesting they favored “hyperbole” over “nuanced analysis.”

“Windows 8 is a good product, and it’s getting better every day,” Shaw wrote. “Unlike a can of soda, a computer operating system offers different experiences to different customers to meet different needs, while still moving the entire industry toward an exciting future of touch, mobility, and seamless, cross-device experiences.”

Shaw insists that Windows 8 is doing exactly that, and that its licenses sold to date — 100 million copies — is good evidence of it. And it may well be, though the number of Windows 8 licenses sold is not at all a direct equivalent to Windows 8 licenses in use. Indeed, some analysts suggest that there may be fewer than 60 million PCs presently running Windows 8.

But that’s not even the point here.

The point, and the gist of Shaw’s message, is that Windows 8 is here to stay, and that Microsoft’s reaction to consumer backlash over some of its features isn’t going to be a knee-jerk return to a more familiar PC interface. It’s going to be a more considered response.

And if the company does elect to bring back the “Start” button for which so many customers seem to be pining, it’s going to be because it has been listening to feedback and adjusting its new Windows recipe accordingly, not because it’s scrapping it and reverting to the old one. In the meantime, if you’re a Windows 8 user befuddled without the “Start” button, just cowboy up and press the “Windows” key …

Does Windows 8 RT Have Enough Users for Its Own iTunes App?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:30:15 +0000

Windows tablet users hoping for a version of Apple’s iTunes media software optimized for Windows 8’s app-oriented “Metro” interface are going to have a long time to wait. Because according to Microsoft, Apple is in no rush to develop one.

To be clear, iTunes is available for Windows 8, but using it requires jumping through some hoops. For Windows 8 users, that means having to go into the desktop to run the Windows 7 version of iTunes. It’s even worse, though, for those with one of the Windows RT machines, such as Microsoft’s Surface RT. They are really out of luck as older Windows apps don’t run at all.

“You shouldn’t expect an iTunes app on Windows 8 any time soon,” Windows CFO Tami Reller told CNN. “ITunes is in high demand. The welcome mat has been laid out. It’s not for lack of trying.”

No, not for lack of trying. But, perhaps, for lack of something else: User base.

According to IDC, Microsoft sold only about 900,000 of its Surface tablets during the first quarter of the year. That’s only about 1.8 percent of the overall market. And it dwarfs the number of RT tablets shipped during the same period — just 200,000, or 0.4 percent of all tablet sales.

It’s hard to imagine Apple looking at that as an opportunity worth throwing a lot of engineering resources at.

There may well be other roadblocks as well: a reticence on Apple’s part to improve the user experience on a rival tablet and perhaps some residual sparring over Office for iOS revenue sharing issues. But audience size is the most obvious issue, and the one that would likely cause Apple to balk at developing the iTunes client that for which Microsoft is clearly angling.

Which is not to say that it won’t someday. Apple has done quite well with iTunes for the PC since debuting it in 2003. Today it’s on hundreds of millions of Windows PCs, making Apple a leading Windows developer. As Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said at our our fifth D conference, giving iTunes to Windows users is “like giving a glass of ice water to someone in Hell” (9:50 in the video below). If Apple feels the same way about Windows 8 Metro, perhaps it’s just waiting for the addressable market to increase a bit.

Apple declined comment on iTunes for Windows 8.

[ See post to watch video ]

Two Products for People Who Miss the Old Windows

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:03:02 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

The face of Windows 8 — the tablet-like, tile-based Start Screen that comes up every time you start a new PC — is nicely designed and works well on touchscreens. But a lot of people hate it. They do almost all of their computing in the traditional Windows desktop environment, which has been demoted to secondary status in Windows 8. And they are annoyed that Microsoft has replaced the familiar Windows Start Menu with the Start Screen in Windows 8.

That means when you want to launch a new app that isn’t pinned to your taskbar, you have to jump back and forth between the desktop and the Start Screen, two radically different user experiences. It drives some folks crazy. They dearly miss the Start Button, which launched the Start Menu, at the left end of the taskbar.

Microsoft is planning a revision of Windows 8, code-named “Windows Blue,” later this year that may smooth out the interaction between the two interfaces. But there’s been no promise that the company is dumping the Start Screen, refocusing on the desktop or restoring the Start Menu.

If you’re a desktop and Start Menu lover using Windows 8, you don’t have to worry about Microsoft’s plans. That’s because ever since Windows 8 emerged in October, numerous third-party utilities have sprung up that restore the Start Menu, allow you to boot the PC directly into the desktop mode and otherwise reassert the desktop’s primacy over the Start Screen. They essentially allow you to use Windows as you always have.

This week, I tested two of these Start Menu add-ons and found each different, but both effective. If you don’t like these, there are many others to choose from.

Start8

This is a $5 utility I found to be the best I tried at simply restoring the old Start Menu. If the price deters you, there’s a 30-day free trial. Start8 comes from a company called Stardock, which makes utilities and games.

Start8 lets users pin apps to the top of it, show a user picture on it and change the physical Windows key so it launches the Start8 menu instead of the Start Screen.

As soon as I downloaded and installed Start8, the old Start Menu was back. You can choose its taskbar icon — either a Windows 8 logo, the Start8 logo or a custom image, including ones that resemble the Start icons from older versions of Windows. A nicely designed, easy-to-use settings screen allows you to customize many other features of the Start Menu, desktop and computer.

One huge feature is the ability to boot directly into the traditional desktop once you’ve signed into your PC. So you don’t have to see the new Start Screen at all. This essentially makes your Windows 8 PC behave a lot like a Windows 7 machine. Start8 can be configured to look something like Windows 8’s “all apps” view, if you prefer, but I suspect most users will stick to its default Windows 7 style.

The program allows you a host of other choices. You can pin apps to the top of it, show your user picture on it and change the behavior of the physical Windows key so it launches the Start8 menu instead of taking you to the dreaded Start Screen. You also can disable the various new Windows 8 controls that appear when you perform certain swipes or mouse movements.

What if you want to be able to get to the Start Screen quickly and you’ve disabled all the usual ways to do it? Well, Start8’s menu comes by default with a link at the top to the Start Screen and it lets you directly launch the new-style Windows 8 apps.

Start8 worked very well and was worth $5. The company says it has been downloaded five million times since Windows 8 launched. You can download it here.

Pokki

If Start8 recreates the traditional Windows Start Menu, Pokki aims to modernize it. The free product, from a company called SweetLabs, does restore the Start Menu, but with an updated look and feel, as well as a built-in app store.

The free Pokki is a window that lists a user’s program categories and recently used apps on the left, and their favorite apps and an app store in a series of panels on the right.

Pokki is a window that lists your program categories and recently used apps on the left, and favorite apps in a series of panels on the right. These right-hand panels, which you can flip through, resemble the screen of a smartphone or tablet, with apps represented by icons.

The left-hand side is a list, with major categories for Favorites (the smartphone-type view), All Apps and the Control Panel items.

There’s also an app store, which was Pokki’s main business before Windows 8 came along and opened the Start Menu opportunity. The apps Pokki offers are all free and many are like Web apps with the browser interface removed. I downloaded YouTube and Gmail, which behaved exactly as they did in a browser. Pokki hopes to make money from app developers.

When first installed, Pokki advertises its apps at the bottom of the Start Menu, but you can turn this off. You can’t, however, turn off the icon for the Pokki app store itself, though you can move it. Apps you buy from Pokki are automatically pinned to the taskbar, though you can unpin them.

Pokki also has a smartphone-like notification system, that, in my tests, listed new messages in the Gmail app.

Like Start8, Pokki also allows you to boot directly into the desktop, skipping the Start Screen. You can set the Windows key to open Pokki, not the Start Screen.

To get quickly to the Start Screen, Pokki has an icon at the lower left. You can download Pokki here. The company says the product has been downloaded three million times since Windows 8 launched.

Bottom line: Whatever Microsoft does or doesn’t do later this year, you can get back your Start Menu and desktop supremacy in Windows 8, right now, with these utilities.

Email Walt at at mossberg@wsj.com.

Windows Blue Preview Coming From Microsoft in June

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:38:44 +0000

If Windows 8 just isn’t getting you excited, you won’t have long to wait before you can get an early look at the next iteration of the PC operating system. A preview version dubbed Windows Blue will be unveiled at the Microsoft BUILD conference in San Francisco next month. The news came from Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green, in an appearance at the Wired Business Conference in New York.

Microsoft Confirms Windows Blue Update Coming; Says Windows 8 Passes 100 Million Licenses Sold

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:01:34 +0000

After months of rumors, Microsoft on Monday confirmed that it is readying an update to Windows 8 for later this year.

Code-named Windows Blue, the update will enable Windows to run on a wider range of devices (read: smaller-screen tablets). In a blog post, Microsoft said the update will also respond to some criticisms of Windows 8 and Windows RT, but the company didn’t go into specifics.

“Windows Blue is a codename for an update that will be available later this year, building on the bold vision set forward with Windows 8 to deliver the next generation of tablets and PCs,” Microsoft’s Tami Reller said in a blog post. “It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem.”

In the blog post, Microsoft also said that it has now sold more than 100 million licenses for Windows 8. And, despite the criticism, Reller said that Microsoft remains pleased with the operating system.

“Windows 8 is a big, ambitious change,” Reller said. “While we realize that change takes time, we feel good about the progress since launch, including what we’ve been able to accomplish with the ecosystem and customer reaction to the new PCs and tablets that are available now or will soon come to market.”

Microsoft billed Windows 8 as a “no compromise” operating system that would pave the way for devices that could offer all the benefits of both a PC and a mobile device. Hybrid designs allow for devices that act as both tablet and laptop, either through a flip of a swivel, a twist of the screen or the addition of a keyboard.

However, critics have said that the reality of Windows 8 has fallen short of its goal amid a lack of top-tier apps and devices that often force a choice of either limited battery life or limited compatibility with older Windows software.

PC sales have also not seen a hoped-for bump from Windows 8, as electronics buyers continue to spend money in other categories.

For her part, Reller noted that the number of apps in the Windows 8 storefront is now six times what it was at launch, and rejected the idea that the PC is past its prime.

“The PC is very much alive and increasingly mobile,” Reller said. “The PC is also part of a much broader device market of tablets and PCs. Windows 8 was built to fully participate in this broader and increasingly mobile device market.”

Microsoft's Gates: iPad Users Really Just Want a Surface

John Paczkowski — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:50:33 +0000

Apple has sold some 140 million iPads to date — most of them to consumers frustrated by their lack of physical keyboards and full-featured productivity suites.

This according to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who, in a wide-ranging interview with CNBC, claimed that current tablets suffer from a lack of PC features — features that Microsoft is delivering to them with Surface and Windows 8.

“With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to gain share in what has been dominated by the iPad-type device,” Gates said. “A lot of those users are frustrated. They can’t type. They can’t create documents. They don’t have Office there. So we are providing them something with the benefits they have seen that have made that a big category, without giving up what they expect in a PC.”

That’s the theory, anyway — though an unproven one at best. According to the latest data from research firm IDC, Microsoft shipped about 900,000 Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets in the first quarter of the year — enough to claim a 1.8 percent share of the tablet market. So if with Surface and Windows 8 Microsoft is finally giving consumers the tablet they really want, consumers haven’t yet realized it. Which is odd, because Microsoft is marketing them with a campaign estimated to cost about $1.5 billion.

You’d think that if a signficant portion of the tablet market really does want the more chimeric device Gates describes, Surface would be doing quite a bit better at market than it is currently. But it’s not. Not yet, anyway.

Perhaps that’s because consumer expectations for what a tablet is and should be have been set by the iPad, and Microsoft needs to change them — not an easy thing to do. Or perhaps it’s because Microsoft has misjudged the tablet market by viewing it through that aging, dusty PC-as-Alpha-and-Omega lens of which it’s so fond.

Gates’s remarks begin at about 7:20 in the video below:

Android-on-Windows App BlueStacks Hits 10 Million Downloads

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:00:02 +0000

BlueStacks thought the idea of being able to run Android apps on a desktop computer would be popular with some consumers.

It just didn’t know how many.

But in just over a year, the company has managed to get 10 million downloads of its free, still-in-beta software.

“When we launched the beta we all took bets on where we’d be in one year,” BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma told AllThingsD. “No one said 10 million.”

The most optimistic of the startup’s employees thought that the app might manage to get a few hundred thousand downloads.

BlueStacks notes that more people have downloaded its app than have bought most of the Android tablets out there. Of course, downloading a free program and actually using it are two different things.

The company isn’t saying how many people are regularly using the program, though its senior VP of marketing calls the number “spooky high.”

In addition to striking new deals and aiming to get even more downloads, BlueStacks is also working to get to a more recent version of Android. I’m hearing that a Jelly Bean-compatible release of the program is coming soon.

Acer Aspire R7 Gives New Meaning to "All-in-One" PC

Bonnie Cha — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:21:05 +0000

They put the trackpad where?

That was my first thought when I heard about Acer’s new Aspire R7 Windows 8 notebook.

Unveiled today at an event in New York, the Aspire R7 is a Windows 8 laptop, but its design is unique.

Part notebook, part all-in-one PC, part tablet, the machine features a 15.6-inch, 1,920 by 1,080-pixel touchscreen that’s mounted on an “Ezel” hinge so you can reposition the display to your liking. You can angle it to use it like a regular laptop, flip the screen over to watch movies, or lay it on top of the keyboard to use it like a tablet.

Acer also switched the location of the keyboard and trackpad: The trackpad is now located at the top of the laptop, with the backlit keyboard just below it. WTF, right?

Acer’s thinking is that you can simply angle the display right to the edge of the keyboard, and use the touchscreen rather than the trackpad to launch applications, click on items and so on.

I get what Acer was going for, but I’m not entirely sold on this design. There are still times where a trackpad might be more useful than a touchscreen, and having to reach over the keyboard to use it seems awkward and uncomfortable.

While PC manufacturers have been toying with these new hybrid designs of late, they come with compromises, and many times you’d be better off going with a standalone notebook or tablet. But I’ll reserve judgment on the Aspire R7 until I’ve actually used it in person.

As far as the guts of the machine, it has an Intel Core i5 processor, a 500 gigabyte hard drive, a 24GB solid-state drive and 6GB of memory. Ports include three USB ports, HDMI and an SD card reader.

The Aspire R7 will be available exclusively at Best Buy on May 17, with a starting price of $1,000. You can preorder one starting today.

In addition to the R7, Acer announced the 7.9-inch Iconia A1 Android tablet and the Aspire P3 Windows 8 Ultrabook convertible, a slimmed-down version of its Aspire V5 notebooks and Aspire V7 Ultrabook.