A tile for Windows Live Mail will show you your latest message, while a tile for a social networking app will show you notifications. In demoing the tile-based UI at last week’s Build conference, Microsoft showed how the tile for a Windows 8 weather app is able to display the current temperature in a city - along with projected temperatures for the next two days - without requiring you to open up the app. The Windows 8 Start Menu is customizable through a mosaic of tiles, which differ from traditional desktop icons by letting you view live information from Windows 8 Metro style apps without actually accessing the apps. Touch-centric, Tiles-based User Interface (UI)Īlthough Windows 8 might look and feel like an entirely new “user experience,”, Microsoft is actually layering a new animation-enabled user interface (UI) on top of an only somewhat upgraded Windows 7. Yet until developers get a real start on apps for Microsoft’s still empty Windows Store, it’s tough to tell whether that will be universally true.Ģ.
Windows 8 is designed to work seamlessly across both PCs and ARM tablets. Tablets can remain in standby mode without disconnecting from the Internet, and then wake up instantly.
In addition, the ARM edition of Windows 8 includes a new mode dubbed “always on, always connected,” designed to let tablets act like smartphones.
“Support for ARM-based chipsets, touch, and sensors makes Windows 8 work beautifully on your choice of a full spectrum of devices, such as 10-inch slates with all-day battery life, ultra-lightweight laptops, and powerful all-in-ones with 27-inch high-definition screens,” Microsoft contends, in a Windows 8 Guide distributed with Windows Developer Preview