News & Reviews:   Microsoft Windows 10

Counterpoint Research recently revealed a rise of 8.1% year-on-year due to the end of support for Microsoft Windows 10. The main winners included ASUS, Apple and Lenovo, showing that while many may have bought new Windows 11 machines, quite a few more migrated to Apple's iOS. Check out the details here.

Microsoft Malaysia recently highlighted that their offer for a free upgrade to Windows 10 will end on 29 July 2016. According to their statistics, 1 in 2 eligible devices (using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1) here in Malaysia have yet to make the move, leaving only 4 days left to make the move for free.

Intel Malaysia have announced the release of their 6th Generation Intel Core processors built on the new Skylake microarchitecture and 14nm fabrication process at their Intel Channel Symposium 2015 for Malaysia. The new 6th generation Intel Core processors promise 2.5x better performance, 3x battery life, 30x better graphics than the average 5-year old system. These new processors are also thinner and lighter with faster wake-up time so much so that former server grade processors like Intel Xeon may soon end up in a mobile workstation.

Microsoft just released a number of huge announcements yesterday, with one of the biggest being Windows 10. As earlier reports have indicated, Windows 10 will be one platform usable across all Windows devices included desktops, notebook computers, tablets and Windows Phones. Notable features include universal apps that look uniform on all devices, which will include Microsoft Office and photo app with more apps coming soon. Cortana will be available across the board and notifications that you clear in one device will be cleared in other devices. Project Spartan will replace Internet Explorer (finally). DirectX 12 will also make an impact with even better gaming graphics and possibly the ability to game from the Xbox to a laptop or desktop PC. The most important factor will be that the upgrade is free for Windows 7 users and above and all Windows Phone users. No news yet on a possible Malaysia release date but the first Windows 10 release for phones could be coming as soon as February 2015. Check out the videos in this article for yourself.

Microsoft has officially announced Windows 10 with a release date expected in April 2015. While we have no idea where Windows 9 went (perhaps it was Windows 8.1 ~ 8 + 1) the big news is that this new Windows 10 will run on every Windows device. This means that when it comes out, it should replace Windows 8 on your PC and Windows Phone on your tablet or smartphone. No news yet on whether this would be called Windows Phone 10 or just Windows 10 throughout, but we're thinking that since Microsoft is aiming for total unification, everything will be called just Windows 10 regardless of device. Key features mentioned for Windows 10 includes:

• An integrated Start Menu ~ The Start button and menu returns, this time incorporating the Metro Live Tiles into the start menu, so you get the best of both worlds without having to constantly switch between the two. You can easily customize this menu by pinning apps as tiles and so forth.
• Universal touch apps on the desktop ~ Instead of having touch apps running on their own Metro UI, everything runs from the desktop, including these touch-based apps. They will be called Universal apps (perhaps because they can be used on a PC and tablet) while Classic apps are your normal PC apps. So far, it looks like it will open up a window on the desktop for the Universal App to run while keeping the desktop intact. Apps will be purchaseable on the Store for any device, but we assume that apps that aren't designed for a touch device like a tablet simply won't appear in the Store.
• Multiple Desktops ~ Looking much like the Recent Apps menu from Android, the new Task View lets you switch between multipled desktops with each desktop running a different app. You can then switch between these desktops and apps at will, without losing data in any of them.
• Customizable desktops with Snap Assist ~ Like to have multiple windows or apps open at one time? Well, now you can easily snap at least four apps at a time without having to precisely resize each window.
• Adaptable design ~ just like responsive design for a website, the Continuum feature in Windows 10 will automatically adapt your OS according to the device. A tablet can switch to just tablet mode or when attached with a keyboard go to PC mode. No news yet how it might look like on a smartphone, but it should look like the current touch-based UI.