Consumer Preview of Windows 8 released

Microsoft has chosen to call it Consumer Preview instead of Beta, but it was promised to the end of February and it came on the very last, extra day. We recognize the problem – there is always something more you want to improve!

kalmstrom.com compatibility
When the developer preview was released in September the kalmstrom.com Office applications were tested and found to support the new operating system well. Now when we have access to a more developed version of Windows 8 we will of course test again and make our outmost to not only support Windows 8 but also to take advantage of the new features to enhance the kalmstrom.com products.

I have written about Windows 8 in earlier blogs, about the kalmstrom.com technicians' first reactions to the developer release and about the new market the Store integrated in Windows 8 will give us. Therefore I will now mention a few other things rather than the Metro, the Windows Store and the touch screen. Finally I will give you a treat – a photo of a young and rather unknown Bill Gates.

Start fresh
All who once have been forced to reinstall an operating system know that it is a tedious process. With Windows 8 that is history. The new operating system gives the option of going back to a fresh installation of Windows without losing personal files or settings or applications installed from the Windows Store. I am not yet sure how it is with other non-Microsoft programs, that do not come from Windows Store, but it is still a good improvement.

Charms
With Windows 8 Microsoft introduces what they call “charms”. These are small and easily reached icons indented for quick navigation to features you use often, like Search, Share – which will be easier with Windows 8 – Devices – for example to stream video to a TV, or send files to another device – or Settings. Internet Explorer 10
With Windows 8 comes Internet Explorer 10, which is said to be the fastest browser of all. I hope it will be better than IE9, which I and many others have found lacking and which I do not find as fast as Google Chrome.

Easy moving between PCs if you use the cloud
It is possible to connect cloud services like Hotmail, SkyDrive, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to the Microsoft account, and if photos are stored on SkyDrive, Facebook or Flickr you can reach them immediately when you open a PC with Windows 8. This makes it easier to use several PCs and still have all you need at hand.


A long way since Windows 1
Windows has come a long way since the first MS- Windows version, presented in 1983 by a happy Bill Gates in the news clip above. The photo comes from Business Insider, and at that time even the tech section of a business paper had to introduce Microsoft as “a leading producer of microcomputing software”.

Behind Windows 8 we find another genius, Steven Sinofsky, who will probably be Microsoft's next CEO. For a full overview of Windows 8 I recommend Microsoft’s own presentation in the Windows Blog.

Microsoft's Weapon against Apple gives new marketplace for kalmstrom.com

This week Microsoft has presented their plans on a Windows Store, that will come with Windows 8. This is very interesting news for the kalmstrom.com team. Next year, when the new operating system is launched, it will be possible to buy applications for Win 8 based PCs and tablets online directly from within the system.

Windows Store - A New Sales Channel For kalmstrom.com
For Microsoft the motive is of course to take up the fight with Apple and App Store, but for kalmstrom.com the Windows Store gives new possibilities. We will explore them thoroughly and certainly find the best way to take advantage of them for the kalmstrom.com Office applications. Windows Store will be global, and Microsoft invites us developers to sell our apps in 231 markets and in more than 100 languages. At release 20 languages will be supported. I am not sure Swedish will be among those first 20, but I am positive that English will!

Better than App Store?
At a first glance Windows Store seems to have some advantages over App Store. We are happy that users will get a chance to try the apps first, just like they can with the current kalmstrom.com products. For our success it is also important that Microsoft will give developers a bigger share of the sales than Apple, that we can use third-party payment partners and that we will be allowed to sell the apps from our own platform also. We cannot do that with the iOS apps we now market on App Store.

Perfect for TimeCard Single
TimeCard Single seems to be very well suited for Windows Store. Today the kalmstrom.com time reporting tool for Outlook is mostly used by big organizations, but I am sure more one man companies would find TimeCard Single  valuable if they only knew about this kalmstrom.com Outlook-addon. It is very convenient to keep track of how time is spent directly within the Outlook Calendar, and by using Windows Store we can give many more single users a chance to do that.

Peter is enthusiastic
Our CEO, Peter Kalmstrom, is excited over the news and already full of plans. His aim is to have something ready for the Windows Store when it launches with the Beta version of Windows 8 by the end of February. By that time we will have learned much more about the Store in Windows 8 and be well on our way to explore this new sales channel.

kalmstrom.com Comments On Windows 8

Last week Microsoft released a pre-beta, developer preview version of Windows 8, their new combined desktop, laptop and tablet operating system. Since then the kalmstrom.com team has been testing it, and I want to share some of our first thoughts and impressions with you. I will surely have reason to come back to Windows 8 many times.

Windows 8 is like a new dish ‒ some will be impressed by it and some not. Users who expected just an update of Windows 7 will be very surprised, and in the beginning maybe also frustrated by everything new. I hope they will come over it soon, because overall this is an intriguing change. Or as one of the kalmstrom.com technicians expressed it: "If you don't like Windows 8, then you don't like tech."

What first strikes you when you open Windows 8 is the totally new interface. Microsoft has hidden the traditional windows and instead given us a tile interface like in their mobile phones. The Start bar, which has been there in all earlier Windows versions, is removed and replaced with icons of each installed application. This tile layout is called "Metro", and it is optimized for touch as well as mouse and keyboard.

The Metro interface is meant to make it easy to have several applications open at the same time, not only on a desktop but also in a smart phone. Swiping from the left switches to the next app, but you can also swipe and drag to put several apps on a screen side by side, in the size that you want them. If you need to have many applications open it might be difficult to find them with this system, as you cannot scroll down the Start bar as before. However, since you can move application tiles in the interface and place them where you want them, you can create groups that will make it easier to find applications.

We all like the Windows Explorer in version 8. It has a ribbon interface, like Office 2010, where most of the common tasks are at your fingertips. It also has a backstage view with many useful options.

Now the team is looking forward to testing Windows 8 further once new computers with really good touch-screens come on the market. Microsoft and their hardware partners have been lagging behind Apple for quite a while, but we don´t believe that trend is going to keep. It will be very interesting to see what Microsoft will do together with Nokia, Samsung, Acer, Intel, Dell, Sony and others.

The next 9-12 months should see some exciting development both on the mobile and the PC markets, and the kalmstrom.com team members are glad to be part of it!

kalmstrom.com Is Testing Windows 8

Yesterday Microsoft released a pre-beta version of their new operating system Windows 8, and we are excited to try it. Even though the kalmstrom.com products interact more with the Office applications than with the operating system, we always follow the Microsoft developments closely.

One thing that especially strikes us, is the trend of making software nicer to look at and easier to use. We have been putting a lot of efforts towards those goals in our own products lately, and we will continue to do so. Now we hope that Windows 8 will make this task easier. For example, could using the Windows 8 Metro user interface make it easier and faster to edit and submit the TimeCard for Outlook time reporting data?

kalmstrom.com CEO Peter and Lead Developer Jayant is already testing the new release, and I will come back to you later with their comments. The installation went smoothly, and now they are both eager to see how Windows 8 can enhance the kalmstrom.com products.