GreenZoner egypt: windows 8

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Vizio brings pricing and release information to its spring line of laptops and desktops" data-src-height="489" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/viziotouchnotebook.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> For those opting to "replace" instead of "clean" this spring, Vizio's got a bit of news for you -- the outfit's latest line  of touch-friendly laptops and desktops now have firm pricing details to  pore over. Starting with the portables, the 14-inch Touch Thin + Light  (CT14T-B0) will ship soon with an AMD A10  APU and a base price of $1,089.99; the Core i7-equipped CT14T-B1,  however, will start at $1,419.99. For those needing a bit more screen to  stare at, the 15.6-inch versions of these guys will go for $1,189.99  (AMD A10) / $1,469.99 (Intel Core i7). Sliding over to desktops, the  24-inch Touch All-in-One (CA24T-B0) will ship momentarily for $1,279.99  with an AMD A10 APU, while the Core i7-infused CA24T-B1 will start at  $1,439.99 and the 27-inch CA27T-B1 will get going at $1,549.99. As you'd  expect, Windows 8 will find itself on home across the entire range, and those looking to buy in immediately can do so at the source links below.</div></div>

Vizio brings pricing and release information to spring line of laptops and desktops

For those opting to "replace" instead of "clean" this spring, Vizio's got a bit of news for you -- the outfit'...

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<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <img alt="DNP Editorial Microsoft is singing the right tune with some wrong notes" data-src-height="412" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/microsoftsurfacewindowsrt53.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">In an episode of <em>Elementary</em>, a TV reinvention of Sherlock Holmes, there is an audacious product placement  for the Microsoft Surface tablet. Holmes, a techno-adept detective  working in New York, whips out a Surface to do some quick research. He  snaps on the keyboard with the same hearty click made famous in  Microsoft commercials. Then the kickstand! The patented three-step  maneuver is so distinctly set apart within the scene, there might as  well be a blinking "Advertisement" notice across the sequence. (Holmes  follows up by searching on Bing, turning the product placement into an  ecosystem placement.)</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> I don't know whether seeing a fictional  genius using Surface helps sales, but if so, it's not helping enough.  The Surface slate is on the skids in retail, as are Windows 8 computers.  It is perhaps not surprising that Microsoft's retail users are slow to  migrate from the familiar (PCs running Windows 7 and XP) to the  unfamiliar (PCs running the radically different Metro interface, and a  new product category in Surface). But swampy sell-through is definitely surprising financial analysts, some of whom are cutting Microsoft's revenue forecasts.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Microsoft is doing a lot right in placing its long bet on ecosystem  coherence. But along the way it is making unnecessary mistakes.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> The Surface RT and the Windows 8 operating system were both  released on October 26, so Microsoft is more than four months into its  grand experiment. The panicky media coverage of Surface sales carries  over to Windows 8 computers with even more alarmed punditry. Windows 8  machines are sitting in stores. Some observers are calling Windows 8 the  new Vista  -- a hard and mostly undeserved slap to the face. Vista was  functionally poor; Windows 8 is battling an inertia problem due to its  unfamiliar interface and lack of compelling problem-solving. Two of  Lenovo's five best-selling laptops (updated hourly) are Windows 7 machines as I type this.</div><blockquote class="quote left" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">   PC sales have been slowing across the board, quarter by quarter, as consumer dollars shift to slabs and phones.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Two reasons for slow Windows 8 PC sales come readily to mind. First,  touch-enabled laptops running the new OS are more expensive than  non-touch versions, giving consumers a reverse incentive to adopt a new  screen experience which is clearly designed for touch. Second, PC sales  have been slowing across the board, quarter by quarter, as consumer dollars shift to slabs and phones.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Meanwhile, Microsoft's many lines of business add up to a healthy  company whose last quarterly report (fiscal Q2 2013, ending December 31)  showed substantial year-over-year gains (26 percent top-line advance  for the Windows division). At quarter's end, the company had sold more  than 60 million Windows 8 licenses. That robust figure implies that  consumers are reaching for OS upgrades on existing machines, a generally  successful operation, rather than unnecessarily spending more for a  hardware refresh.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> The Windows business as a whole enjoys powerful  momentum. Windows is a multiple-versioned product, obviously. On the  enterprise side, more than 60 percent of desktops are running Windows 7.  Overall, Windows 7 owns 45 percent of the market, and XP steadfastly  hangs on to 39 percent. <span>Windows 8 claims a slim 2.6 percent share as of February. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <span>The  point of this pie-charting is that Microsoft's computer OS footprint is  a mighty 92 percent across all Windows versions. That sprawling  dominion can seem threatened by slow Windows 8 uptake, in the context of  an accelerating post-PC world. But Steve Jobs was not really right  about that -- at least, not yet. It is less a post-PC world than a co-PC  world. The computer is far from dead, and infotaining tablets are far  from being productive replacements. The high-powered Surface, in fact,  is the most-aligned to productivity in the field. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">  Technology ecosystems are complex matrices of cross-wired businesses,  and the major examples sharply differ from each other. Each of the chief  players -- Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft -- imprints a unique  eco-template on the marketplace. Each seeks to capture as much digital  living within its branded walls as possible. These lifestyle silos  include walking around, driving around, being passively entertained in  the living room, being productive in the home office, working a job,  creating media, searching / finding information, shopping, storing  digital possessions, navigating the virtual realm, navigating the  physical realm, talking on the phone, texting, socializing in other  ways, gaming, etc. Each aspect of life is a business unit in one or more  tech ecosystems valued at billions of dollars.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Windows 8 and  Surface together represent a prodigious bet to round out an eco-branding  ploy which hits all major product categories with a consistent look and  feel. It is the insistence of that last point, the Metro interface  everywhere, that is unnecessary and harmful.</div><blockquote class="quote right" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">    The important question isn't whether consumers will adopt Windows 8;  the question is whether Microsoft needs consumers to adopt a computer OS  that looks like Windows Phone handsets and Surface tablets.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> The important question isn't whether consumers will adopt Windows 8;  the question is whether Microsoft needs consumers to adopt a computer OS  that looks like Windows Phone handsets and Surface tablets. Does a  desktop OS need to provide interface continuity with the organism's  mobile extensions? Apple, the ecosystem champ since it first brought  iTunes to market, doesn't build that way. The functional Windows 8  operating system isn't the chief retail problem. The Metro interface,  the blue-tiled placard of a new Microsoft, so different, so strangely  touchy and so clearly emblematic of mobile functioning, is what is  driving product confusion and refusal to engage.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Removing the  Start button in Windows 8 is Microsoft's first misjudgment. The second  is refusing to allow booting to the familiar desktop, which would be a  friendly and inviting OS customization.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <span>In Windows 8, you  can revert to the Windows desktop experience via a tile, and you can  further customize the interface with third-party apps which revive the  Start experience and return Windows 8 to a 7-like environment. These  solutions, while handy, have to make early adopters wonder why they  bought into Windows 8 in the first place, especially if they are not  using a touch screen.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Microsoft has underestimated how  tiny usage obstacles loom large in the consumer experience. The company  clearly doesn't want users to avoid Metro. Why not? Why, in fact,  shouldn't Microsoft and its retail partners emphasize the desktop  interface alternative as a point of reassurance? Is there anything in  business more valuable than 92 percent of the market fiercely committed  to your core product? Microsoft is marketing like a bully, as if the  consumer message were, "We know your technology future better than you  do. So you must adopt our vision of it."</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Forcing loyal users  through a usage quirk at every boot, just to arrive at the starting  point that millions of people have loved for years, is wishful thinking  at best, user hostility at worst -- and self-damaging in either event.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> It's early days still for Microsoft, and category trends are  changeable, like swiftly flowing mountain streams carving new paths in  the hillside. Mini tablets might complete a takeover of that category,  creating headroom for laptop sales to revive. The Surface is just  reaching international markets now. The rumored OS update, Windows Blue,  could be a corrective that proves more accommodating of consumer  hesitation.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Over the last 20 years, ever since Microsoft under  Bill Gates missed the internet like a hitter striking out with the bat  on his shoulder, Microsoft has proven its willingness to arrive late to  the party, to persist and to drink its share of the punch.</div><hr dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Brad  Hill is a former Vice President at AOL, and the former Director and  General Manager of Weblogs, Inc. He uses Windows computers, iOS  handhelds and fine-point pens.</em></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><em> </em><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477110" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zet/9zet.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zet/9zet-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zet/9zet-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477113" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zew/9zew.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zew/9zew-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zew/9zew-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477115" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zey/9zey.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zey/9zey-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zey/9zey-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477116" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zez/9zez.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zez/9zez-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zez/9zez-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477117" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zf0/9zf0.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zf0/9zf0-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zf0/9zf0-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477118" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zf1/9zf1.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zf1/9zf1-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zf1/9zf1-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_486621" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/475/a6s8/a6s8.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/475/a6s8/a6s8-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/475/a6s8/a6s8-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" data-ls-image-ref="fm_490599" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/479/a9v1/a9v1.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/479/a9v1/a9v1-460.jpg" width="460" /><img alt="Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro" class="" data-ls-image-ref="fm_477131" data-ls-use-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zfe/9zfe.jpg" data-src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zfe/9zfe-460.jpg" height="345" src="http://media.gdgt.com/img/products/465/9zfe/9zfe-460.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="460" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>

Editorial: Microsoft is singing the right tune with some wrong notes

In an episode of Elementary , a TV reinvention of Sherlock Holmes, there is an audacious product placement for the Microsoft Surface tabl...

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Samsung leaks the ATIV Book 6: a regular Windows 8 notebook possibly headed to the US for $1,200

Vizio brings pricing and release information to spring line of laptops and desktops

Editorial: Microsoft is singing the right tune with some wrong notes

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