Windows 8.1 Carries New Features
In view of endless debate over Windows 8 and the confusion because of its new features, Windows took a little while to come back with a worthy answer. With its newer version, Windows 8.1, it has few things to present to its critics.
Windows 8.1 Carries New FeaturesThe Return of the Windows Start Button
While this feature was always a part of Windows since its beginning, no one liked the idea of Windows 8 not having this feature. The Windows button in Windows 8 only looks different and has touch capability, but it can be accessed when you press the Windows key on your keyboard.
Users did not like this, and so, Windows has placed the button where it is more visible. It’s believed that users will like this for more than one reason. They’ll know it’s there because they can see it, and they will also have the option of using the touch screen option.
Windows Also Introduced the Hands-Free Mode
Windows has created a brilliant array of apps that has pleased most users. It has even created recipe apps that collect recipes from top chefs so that you can learn how to cook great meals. However, how would you read through the recipes and flip pages when your hands are full of cooking materials?
Well, you don’t have to touch your screen with Windows 8.1 if you have your web cam on. All you need to do is wave your hand over your page on screen, and the page will turn. Your web-cam will pass on the signal via the Hands-free app.
Universal Search
Previously, the ‘search’ option on the right side of your screen always existed, but it was never quite visible. Now you can do so much more with it because it is Universal, and allows you to search Bing as well as your folders, applications, and files, in one box.
You Now Have Updated and New Apps
Similar to the smartphone and the tablet, Windows 8 and 8.1 both have apps. These apps are quite different from the regular ones you come across, and they are available through your touch-screen. Microsoft has offered you the ability to use your computer as a tablet because these items are available on your touch-screen.
Windows deserves much credit for designing them, and they are all highly useful. To name a few, there is a scientific calculator, a Health and Fitness application that can monitors your exercise and diet, a Reading List, where you can save your reading material and updates for current apps.
Windows Now Gives You 3-D Printer Support
Microsoft claims Windows 8.1 is the first operating system that functions smoothly with desktop 3-D printers such as the Solidoodle and Makerbot. These 3-D printers will use an API and a driver, similar to that of a 2-D printer.
All these new features have been pleasing Windows lately, and Windows seems to be getting things right. All the criticism that they faced in recent months will lose its intensity with each user trying out 8.1
[Image via techcrunch]
The post Windows 8.1 Carries New Features appeared first on TechBeat.
via TechBeat http://techbeat.com/2013/07/windows-8-1-carries-new-features/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=windows-8-1-carries-new-features
Dell to Enter The Wearable Computing Niche?
With the availability of Google Glass to the general public coming closer and closer, the interest in wearable computing has never been this strong. Of course, the concept has always been a topic of interest for forward thinkers, and it is also a bone of content for those who see a lot of potential danger. But, as much as some people may have closed their minds to the concept, wearable computing is the future of gadgets. And if the whispers about tech icon Dell are anything to go by, the wearable computing niche is really something to look into.
The news is that Dell is looking to enter the wearable computing niche, some say because of the struggling PC market. We’ve heard doomsday prophecies revolving around the death of the personal computer, thanks to smaller and more portable devices. Whether or not the PC will totally disappear within our lifetime, we do know that Dell has not been a healthy company in quite some time.
Add to that the shrinking PC market, and it is only understandable that the brains running Dell are looking at other options. If they want to continue being a top brand, that is.
I do not know a single soul who gets excited when Dell is mentioned, but that does not mean the company may not have anything to add to the game. They might not be as far as Google Glass yet, but Sam Burd, VP of personal computing at Dell, has said that they are “exploring ideas in that [wearable computing] space”. He went as far as to say that wearing a watch on your wrist is “pretty interesting, pretty appealing”.
Of course, we assume that he was referring to the likes of the Pebble and Cookoo watches.
Still, this does not mean that Dell is totally going to abandon the PC. Burd stated this rather clearly in spite of the abysmal financial returns his department has had.
Will Dell be able to make waves – even mere splashes – in the wearable computing niche?
[Image via Tech Week Europe]
The post Dell to Enter The Wearable Computing Niche? appeared first on TechBeat.
via TechBeat http://techbeat.com/2013/07/dell-to-enter-the-wearable-computing-niche/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dell-to-enter-the-wearable-computing-niche