Microsoft have revealed that Windows 8 will be officially launched on October 26th. Existing Windows users will be able to upgrade (for a limited time) at a low cost which is rumoured to be around £25.00 here in the UK. In addition to this, users who have been testing the Release Preview Edition will also have the option of this low cost upgrade to the final edition.
No details on a release date for Microsofts Surface Tablet as yet - but expect this to be around the same time, along with a host of new Windows 8 tablet hardware from Microsofts OEM partners.
Office 2013 Preview
Whilst edging ever closer to the release of Windows 8, Microsoft also took the opportunity to introduce the latest version of Microsoft Office earlier this week. Unsurprisingly, the Office Suite of products gets a Windows 8 (metro style) makeover and there are some nice looking new features all optimized for touchscreen.
I will likely do a full review of Office 2013 once I have had the chance to work with the preview edition for a while, but one of the things that struck me as exciting is that they are making Excel a lot easier for everyone to use. Excel can be a very intimidating and confusing piece of software at times, but apparently even someone like me will be able to create a pivot table from now on!
iTunes in the cloud
When iOS 5 was announced by Steve Jobs at WWDC 2011 last June, one of the most exciting new features was the ability to download all of your purchased Music, TV shows and Films from the cloud. However, up until yesterday the ability to access your purchase history for Films was only available in the US. Finally Apple have given this to some other countries including the UK.
This means if you purchased a Film on iTunes, you will also be able to access it from the cloud on your Apple TV and iOS devices on demand and at no extra cost. It's about time too quite frankly!
iPad 7 inch rumours
More rumours this week that Apple will launch a 7 inch iPad sometime this year. The late Steve Jobs was apparently completely against this idea. However, Apples top brass have made a number of decisions that may not have sat well with their former visionary CEO since he resigned his position and sadly passed away.
I wonder if he would have approved of the iPhone 4S for example, and I seriously doubt he would have allowed the new iPad to be thicker, without an 8 megapixel camera, or Siri for that matter. I also question whether he would have named the voice assistant Siri either?
I'm by no means suggesting that Apple are getting everything wrong here though. The Retina MacBook is a truly stunning piece of kit, and iOS 6 looks like a step in the right direction too. As for a 7 inch iPad - my instinct tells me that we will indeed be seeing this soon!
Google Nexus 7 Tablet selling well
One of the reasons we may soon be seeing a 7 inch iPad is due to the popularity of the Amazon Kindle Fire, and the newly released Google Nexus 7. Googles new tablet is flying off the shelves and they have struggled to meet demand. My next door neighbour Simon has ordered one actually, and he seems absolutely consumed with excitement and anticipation at the arrival of this device.
It looks to be a really nice product actually and I hope to be able to check one out soon. I also hope Simons arrives today for him!!
And that's that for another week folks!
Take care!
Peter
Good round up Peter! Worth noting that Siri had been around for a few years in the US as a 3rd party app for iPhone. Basically Apple acquired the company and rewrote/integrated the software into iOS5. I suppose they could have renamed it though.
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