PCWorld Sep-12

MICROSOFT MAY HAVE a serious case of Apple envy. What else could you conclude after the tech giant, known for its operating systems and related software, recently announced two homemade tablets built specifically for Windows 8? (See “Surface Tablet: Your Next Windows PC?” on page 79.) Microsoft has been around for 37 years, and on occasion it has even built hardware items, from the Xbox to keyboards. But this is the first time that the company has ever created its very own Windows hardware. If the strategy sounds familiar, that’s because it is: Apple has fattened its corporate wallet by releasing hardware/operating system pairings that delight users precisely because those products are designed as an integrated unit. No third parties are mucking around in the silicon and creating computers that don’t…

The Tablet Wars Windows 8 is far and away the most capable tablet OS; it’s based on the robust Windows NT kernel rather than stripped-down “crippleware.” It possesses a strong file system designed for security, and it integrates well with existing Windows devices. Microsoft will have a unified ecosystem across desktops/laptops, smartphones, and tablets, all with a similar interface and core OS. Harnessing the power of the cloud, all of your data, down to the layout of your tiles, will travel with you across devices. This seamless experience will cause many consumers to buy into the full Microsoft ecosystem. Even if Microsoft Surface is less than impressive in the consumer space, the corporate and educational markets will purchase it in droves. Instead of iPads and desktops, a school could just supply each of…

MICROSOFT’S NEW Offices, 2013 and 365, add some bold twists to the franchise, delivering smart updates to Word, Outlook, and Excel. Most significantly, the revised suites embrace the mobile world and the cloud, deeply integrating with Microsoft’s SkyDrive service and promoting collaboration via the company’s recent acquisitions Skype and Yammer. (See page 68 for more on the cloud.) Office 2013 and Office 365 deliver a very similar user experience, but Microsoft is clearly steering its customers toward the cloud-based version. For the first time, the company is marketing Office 365 to consumers, and not strictly to businesses. Microsoft hasn’t yet announced pricing for either product. Though the user interface in Office 2013, like the one in Office 2010, puts the Ribbon front and center, the text and icons in the Ribbon are…

AS OF JUNE 28, 2012, Verizon no longer sells a separate plan for each device an individual or family owns. All new Verizon customers must buy a “Share Everything” plan that covers all of their devices for voice, text, and data. Each plan comes with unlimited voice minutes and texts, but Verizon charges for adding devices to a plan, and some devices cost more to add than others do. Share Everything will simplify the billing process for people who buy data for multiple devices. And since data is shared among devices, a family’s heavy data users can consume data that other members wouldn’t have exhausted in their own plans. But data hogs can put the entire family over the limit. Verizon says it adopted the new plans because more people own multiple connected…

Apple Expands Its App Offerings With Podcasts Apple’s new Podcasts is a free universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Its playback control/syncing features let you start listening on one device and pick up where you left off on another. Users can browse podcasts by medium (Audio or Video), and use the Sleep Timer to stop playing a podcast at a designated time. You can also share episodes via Twitter, Messages, and Mail. Tablets Will Outship Laptops by 2016 Tablet shipments will exceed laptop shipments by 2016, research firm NPD DisplaySearch says, because of consumers’ desire for portability. Laptop sales will grow from 208 million units this year to 393 million units by 2017, they say, while tablet shipments will increase from 121 million units this year to 416 million units in…

THOUGH ANDROID 4.1 (Jelly Bean) looks and behaves a lot like Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), it comes with numerous enhancements—including Google Now and a new voice recognition system. What is Google Now and how does it work? Google Now gives you information that it considers most relevant to you, based on the time and your current location. To reach the Google Now screen, you can swipe up on the lock screen or swipe up from the bottom of the screen from anywhere in Android. The Google Now screen will pop up and populate itself with “cards” related to your recent Google searches, Google Calendar appointments, local weather, nearby places of interest, and other potentially useful information. Google Now is both context sensitive and location aware; if you’ve looked up a…