You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
It's a world of code names out there, and final products rarely ever inherit the name given to them during the development process. It appears that Microsoft doesn't plan to buck the trend with the client version of Windows Blue, an OS refresh that Mary Jo Foley says is destined to become Windows 8.1. The screenshot you see above of Build 9375 was leaked on WinForum.eu and Foley has confirmed it with her sources; apparently Blue is poised to be kept under the Windows 8 umbrella instead of Win9, so the 8.x naming scheme would fit. Additionally, her sources have indicated that the Blue update for RT will simply be known as Windows RT 8.1. While we wait for official word from Microsoft, check out our screenshot tour of a recently leaked build of the update -- after all, its functionality is a bit more important than whatever it gets named.
Filed under: Desktops, Software, Microsoft
Source: ZDNet
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
We probably don't need to tell you that one of the first things we did upon finding out that Windows Blue had leaked was download that sucker. (Sorry Microsoft, we can't help ourselves.) Well, after some finagling we got it up and running in a virtual machine and gave spin. Even at this early stage its pretty obvious that Blue is going to be a relatively minor, but welcome upgrade Windows 8. And, while we encountered plenty of rough edges, we'd say they're more than explained away by the fact that this is an early build and VirtualBox can introduce its own set of problems. But, if you're just looking for a sneak peak at what Microsoft has in store for Windows in 2013, head on after break and check out the gallery of screenshots below.
Subtlety can't always avert controversy. That leaked build of Windows Blue is a case in point: it suggests a relatively incremental update to Windows 8, yet some of its revelations are already causing quite a stir. Neowin now reports that Internet Explorer 11, as contained within the leaked build, identifies itself to host websites as "Mozilla... like Gecko." Confusing, right? Perhaps, but it's not really as underhand as it sounds, as you can see from the full line of code in the picture above.
The program still identifies itself (in brackets) as IE 11, but it forgoes Microsoft's older identifier ("MSIE") and simply describes itself as being a browser that renders HTML in a similar way to Firefox's Gecko layout engine. Neowin speculates that the reason for this could be to start afresh: by confusing host websites with a new identifier, IE 11 might avoid having legacy CSS code thrown at it, dating back to the bad old days when web designers had to give Internet Explorer special treatment. It's also been suggested that this could cause problems for business apps that genuinely rely on legacy CSS code -- although it's worth remembering that we're not looking at a final release here, and none of us (ahem) are even meant to be using it.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft
Via: Slashdot
Source: Neowin
Want to get a first-hand look at Microsoft's updated OS? You might be able to download the unreleased Windows Blue operating system on your own machine. Leaked build 9364 hit file sharing sites earlier today -- according to Neowin, the 32-bit edition is available for download as a 2.63GB ISO, and likely hit the web from a Microsoft partner in France. Notable adjustments include larger and smaller Live Tiles, enabling a bit more Start screen customization, along with an updated side-by-side app view, which boosts multitasking efficiency by displaying two applications with matching width. Other additions include a Play option under the Devices panel, a screenshot button on the Share sidebar, and Internet Explorer 11, which comes packaged with the new OS. Windows Blue build 9364 appears to be an unauthorized leak, but even if you have any reservations about installing it on your own machine, you'll surely be able to check out plenty of eye candy from other users over the hours and days to come. In the meantime, hit up the source links for a few more screenshots.
[Thanks, Jim]
