Windows 8: Watch Microsoft’s full ARM tablet demo [video]

By Tom Warren, on 3rd Jun 11 10:14 am with 71 Comments

Windows 8 tablets preview

Microsoft introduced a number of tablet concepts during a partner preview event earlier this week.

The software giant held a technical demonstration at Computex on Thursday to demonstrate Windows 8 to hardware partners. Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem at Microsoft, demonstrated Windows 8 on a variety of tablets. Angiulo showed how Windows 8 works across x86 and ARM-based chips. Microsoft previously introduced a technology preview of its Windows ARM support by showing off an early build of Windows 8 at CES 2011. Microsoft is partnering with ARM-based manufactures NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to produce new Tablet devices.

Angiulo shows off a number of Windows 8 ARM tablet concepts (see video below) and a more in depth demonstration of the new Windows 8 user interface. Microsoft also shows how the start button now activates the new start menu user interface on Windows 8.

Microsoft revealed its new Windows 8 user interface during the All Things Digital D9 conference on Wednesday. Windows chief Steven Sinofsky detailed the company’s future plans for Windows and revealed that the firm plans to speak more about Windows 8 at the BUILD conference in September. Windows 8 includes a new user interface which takes elements from the company’s Windows Phone 7 software. Microsoft will allow users to launch apps from a tile-based start screen, which replaces the traditional Windows Start menu. Applications include live tile notifications and fluid, natural switching between applications. Microsoft has also built in the ability to snap and resize an application to the side of the screen and multitask outside of the new touch UI. The new applications will be web powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript, with full access to the power of the PC. Microsoft is positioning Internet Explorer 10 at the heart of the Windows 8 app experience.

  • http://twitter.com/efjay01 Ef Jay

    After seeing Windows 8, doesnt every other OS look dated with its icons? It just looks so fluid and smooth, cant imagine using anything else now,

    • BucksterMcgee

      Yep :)

      That’s exactly how I feel with Windows Phone 7. Once you use it, everything else just seems wrong.

    • BucksterMcgee

      Yep :)

      That’s exactly how I feel with Windows Phone 7. Once you use it, everything else just seems wrong.

    • Anonymous

      Agreed on the Windows Phone. All other others (even my iphone) just feel “old” when I pick it up.  The OEMs need to create better hardware though. 

    • Anonymous

      Agreed on the Windows Phone. All other others (even my iphone) just feel “old” when I pick it up.  The OEMs need to create better hardware though. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Simon-Paul/12449401 Simon Paul

      ^Exactly

      I love my WP7, every time I go to use a friends iPhone or Android phone, it just doesn’t feel right. There is so much missing on those platforms in terms of UI and content.

    • Kiran Mama

      Chyuteeya hai ke?

    • Anonymous

      makes the ipad grid of icons look like 1990′s stuff. MS got the right idea. You see all these guys with ipads hauling their macbooks and having to switch back and forth. They are advertising to the world hte fatal flaw in apple strategy: making a phone OS a productivity OS is harder than making a productivity OS touch friendly. MS got it right.

    • Anonymous

      makes the ipad grid of icons look like 1990′s stuff. MS got the right idea. You see all these guys with ipads hauling their macbooks and having to switch back and forth. They are advertising to the world hte fatal flaw in apple strategy: making a phone OS a productivity OS is harder than making a productivity OS touch friendly. MS got it right.

    • Tryllz

      W8 Tablet UI is something logical, Tiles, for iPad the icons are in the mid-air on screen, seems so fake as nothing can simply suspend without support in mid-air…this is reality people…

    • Tryllz

      W8 Tablet UI is something logical, Tiles, for iPad the icons are in the mid-air on screen, seems so fake as nothing can simply suspend without support in mid-air…this is reality people…

    • Anonymous

      It really does. I’m finally excited about a touch interface. I just hope Microsoft can get the message out to consumers and devs or we may be left with a brilliant OS that doesn’t have enough app support.

      It’s early days for WP7, but developers don’t seem to understand how it works and how they can make their apps truly integrate into the hubs, etc. I hope Windows 8 devs take advantage of the great work Microsoft has put into this.

    • Guest

      “MS got it right.”

      Ultimately that will be decided by consumers. Currently, that 90′s-looking Apple stuff is blowing MS away in phone and tablet sales, and has been gaining share nearly every quarter since Vista on the macbook.     

      Metro on the desktop is very risky. A lot of people make decide that if they have to learn a new UI anyway, maybe it’s time to evaluate Apple, or Google, or Linux as well.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      Everything about Windows 8 looks fantastic  EXCEPT for the development…. 

      At 29:51
      “Learn how to access hardware using HTML and Javascript”

      Seriously?….  Please say it isn’t so…. This wreaks of HTML “web widgets” they tried to push on windows mobile.  I can’t believe they are just dropping everyone who has put a big investment into Silverlight and WP7 development….  

      They are basically telling us that any big project you are working on for WP7 with all the controls, libraries, assets, know how etc. you’ll have to start over from scratch porting it to a Windows 8 touch tile app.

      What about 3D games? Augmented Reality? Data Access or Open a socket? What if I want to access my own peripherals?

    • http://twitter.com/BrandonLive Brandon Paddock

      For details on the development story, attend (or follow along with) the Build conference. http://www.buildwindows.com/

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      Sorry I’m not going to go to BUILD just to learn about HTML & CS3…

      Also as someone who is in the middle of a large Silverlight project/framework they were planning to port to Windows Phone and Windows 8, I don’t have the luxury of waiting months to find out something that should be announced now…

      The development story for me sounds like ”sad day for you” ;-)

      It seems that because of the rush to get Windows 8 out they are really just focused on IE 10 and getting it working first.  Which means HTML5 “apps” are basically running inside of IE.    Which probably means that silverlight and flash would work inside the AppX package (or whatever they end up calling it), but that would depend on having a flash and silverlight 5 plugin ready for ARM which probably won’t exist at first either…  Silverlight might be ready, but I seriously doubt flash will.

      I’m guessing the *real* development story doesn’t actually start until next year when developers can build real apps instead of “desktop gadgets”

    • Grs_dev

      I am not sure why you insist on taking this stance. As far as I know you can still write your apps in C++ if you want. They’ll run on all versions of Windows

      Any decent software engineer knows that UIs come and go.  A well designed, and architected application should weigh the distribution of its logic and be built accordingly…

    • http://twitter.com/RenzoDev Renzo

      I was going to say, the way I see it is you can now program for the Windows ecosystem in C++, .NET (and everything that compiles to the CLR), Silverlight, and now using the scripting language JavaScript and markup language HTML natively.

      Pretty much anyone can program for Windows at this point, and making it able to adapt itself to multiple form factors (ARM, tablet) is really just icing on the cake.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Simon-Paul/12449401 Simon Paul

      ^like others, I think you are missing it. Both Silverlight and HTML5 will be supported. Did you notice how  he went to Word straight from the home screen with the live tile? HTML5 is a long way from providing the same level of heavy lifting application abilities that Silverlight, etc is capable of. Its simply making that development world available, not eliminating the other.

      Microsoft is reaching out to both developer worlds. Stop freaking out.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      No… you’re missing it.  Word and all the office apps launch into the desktop.   It’s not me just freaking out.  The silverlight forum has a thread with over 5 million views just in the past couple days with developers all over the world freaking out….   This wouldn’t be happening if Microsoft said “you can develop new Windows 8  apps through .Net as well as HTML5″, but that isn’t what they are saying.

      It’s about confidence.  Why freak out the development community that has always supported you?

      I have no doubt that other technologies will be supported but it looks pretty obvious that at first it will only HTML5 for third party tiled apps.  Although I suppose maybe you can develop a full screen .Net app and launch it from a tile, which would basically launch into the desktop at full screen.   Not exactly a great experience for your users…

    • TryllZ

      It would be straight up stupid to judge negatively about what he said about accessing hardware via HTML & Javascript, those who have accomplished all that what resides in the video, as per your claim are unable to perform what you are questioning….strange but you should have had some sense b4 posting a quesition like that…STRANGE BUT TRUE, YES…

  • Anonymous

    oh boy =(
    “This video contains content from SME. it is not available in your country.”
    what can i do?

  • Anonymous

    oh boy =(
    “This video contains content from SME. it is not available in your country.”
    what can i do?

    • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

      google “public proxy”

      err…. I mean, bing it…

    • Anonymous

      thx =)

  • Nessrapp

    Bring on ipad3, iphone5, icloud and whatever ixxxx, nothing will match Win 8, it’s just too brilliant. oh and chome os was so dead on arrival! :)

    • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

      I agree with all of that!

    • Anonymous

      but still people will not give it a chance for being a microsoft product (since they hate MS) also because they love the rotten apple. also because some people see the desktop version not for them and alot of stuff, some people dont even like it but its personal preference…

      but I liked it, and i would get it next week if i could. and it will work so much better in future i bet. some people even complained about lives not being live tiles, but i bet since its months away from ready, they will get live times and stuff, like wp7 <3

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Simon-Paul/12449401 Simon Paul

      ^I agree, everyone will be “afraid” at first. But it is the way of the future. We will have mini touchscreens everywhere in our lives and Microsoft has designed for it. Microsoft is actually coming out “ahead” of the market. 5 years down the road, this OS will be full of win for everyone. We’ll have wall mounted tablets in all our rooms with equal access to all our files/apps. You see it in movies, now we will see it in real life. Props to MS for grasping at the next step in the world of PCs!

      And for the people worried about the traditional desktop, its still there, but its flexible now. And the cross app integration is BEAUTIFUL.

    • Anonymous

      you think? we’ll see!

  • Nessrapp

    Bring on ipad3, iphone5, icloud and whatever ixxxx, nothing will match Win 8, it’s just too brilliant. oh and chome os was so dead on arrival! :)

  • GP007

    I really wonder how they’ll tweak the desktop to fit with the start screen now.  And I also expect that there will be a setting to get the default start menu for those who just want that as well.  So don’t freak out guys.  It’s obvious though that we’re in a transition right now with this OS, Win8 is the first step.

    • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

      I like the new Start menu… once I realised it wasn’t a new replacement for the desktop.

    • TryllZ

      people, people..this is not the UI for the desktop, its just the tablet version…

    • FatSon

      Not true. If you listened to the video, Windows 8 will work accross all form factors. The metro UI supports keyboard and mouse – it was demonstrated in the video.

    • TryllZ

      ThanX, but I meant this isn’t the final version for the desktop, it just for the tablet with a desktop experience…the integrated OS part is for “development around the tablet” purpose only as of yet…anyway thanX

  • http://twitter.com/RenzoDev Renzo

    Met my expectations and even took me by surprise a little, might have to hold off on that iPad3 purchase now. My favorite part is when he describes the Metro UI as “Chrome-less”, over and over again lol

    Aero has always been pretty heavy on the digital chrome, though =P

  • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

    I am SO glad that the new experience is just the Start menu, not a replacement. Phew. I can close the Apple Store tab in my browser now. :-)

  • Gordoncai

    as a tablet, would it offer portrait mode? because i like holding my tablet in portrait mode over landscape which they are showing now only.

  • Anonymous

    So much for all the haters saying Microsoft is not an innovative company. Windows 8 is really revolutionary… Message to apple>>> Game Over!

    • Mmontrezjones

      Not innovative? 

      *cough* KINECT *cough* Surface *cough* Everything that apple has marketed besides the iPod *cough*

    • Guest

      *cough* Kinect, key technology licensed from an Israeli company after Apple said no. *cough* Surface, aka big ass table that maybe ten people bought. *cough* Macbook that has caused the entire PC industry to rethink the POS they used to get away with selling and has given Apple 50% of industry profit, even though they have less than 10% share. *cough* iPhone, which redefined what a phone should be, put smartphones sales into overdrive, destroyed MS’s WM business, and crippled Nokia’s and RIM’s. *cough* iPad, which with one product redefined the category and stole MS’s ten year head start, selling more units in its first 6 months than MS in the entire decade previously?

      *cough* ignorant MS fanbois who think MS hasn’t been bitch slapped by Apple for a decade.

    • Guest

      Yeah, like the way it has been game over in phones since WP7 came out. Oh right, nevermind.

  • http://twitter.com/jimmyfal Jimmy Fallon

    I wasn’t so sure with the first demo in front of MossJobs the other night, but this guy on stage really gave an amazing performance, and it is very apparent that MS isn’t screwing around anymore, they are coming in for the kill. BIG TIME.

    • TryllZ

      correct, although I’m stirictly against the ribbon UI for th desktiop version, not so intuitive after all…they need to innovate in creativity in the UI section more, as its the main point of interaction after all with the user..

    • TryllZ

      correct, although I’m stirictly against the ribbon UI for th desktiop version, not so intuitive after all…they need to innovate in creativity in the UI section more, as its the main point of interaction after all with the user..

    • Anonymous

      I really want to see more of the ribbon UI. It works great in Office (I spend 8 hours a day using the ribbon in Word and Sharepoint), and after a small learning curve the ribbon makes my life so much easier.

  • http://twitter.com/jimmyfal Jimmy Fallon

    I wasn’t so sure with the first demo in front of MossJobs the other night, but this guy on stage really gave an amazing performance, and it is very apparent that MS isn’t screwing around anymore, they are coming in for the kill. BIG TIME.

  • Wourelia

    oooooooohhh snap
    sorry.

  • http://windowsvn.vn Hieu_nt_vn

    It’s a Wonderful. Thank you.

  • http://windowsvn.vn Hieu_nt_vn

    It’s a Wonderful. Thank you.

  • Anonymous

    damn windows 8 is looking good on tablets, the snap feature is amazing for multi tasking on a tablet

  • Anonymous

    looks like Microsoft is beating WebOS at its own game with this stuff

  • GRS_DEV

    Xbox, Kinect, Azure, WP7 and Win8 all remind me of the Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld shoe store commercial where Jerry asks Bill whether “they [Microsoft] are going to come out with something that will make our computers moist and chewy like cake so we can just eat them while we’re working? If yes show me a signal. Adjust your shorts”

    Keep adjusting those shorts Bill…

    • Anonymous

      When Bill Adjusts his shorts, $8 Billion dollar companies get bought….

  • Anonymous

    lol, “please no video cameras”

  • zzz

    Hey I like this guy (Mike Angiulo) who did the demod. None of the unnecessary PR fluff talk and his delivery was clear and fast.

    • http://twitter.com/BrandonLive Brandon Paddock

      Mike rocks :)

  • Anonymous

    Video not available in Germany! SME is reporting almost every video from Microsoft recently.

    Why can’t they just license Sony’s music they use globally? The person who is responsible for this at Microsoft really needs a new job!

  • Anonymous

    This is why i come to this site. Engadget just did a live blog and hated on it the whole time, i though it was just a touchlayer over windows 7 like they said. boy, were they wrong, this look absolutly amazing. cant wait to have this on a Kal- El or AMD Fusion Slate. The UI looks great epecialy the hidden options. I just hope there is an easy way to close open programs. Maybe a super good version of task manager.

    • Justfortherecord

      What I have noticed about the Engadget folks they truly are a biased reporting agent. They are not very objective in many of their posts. Most of the Engadget Bloggers have Android or IOS devices. Many of these people claim to cling on to the new generation of technology and see Microsoft as last generation. Many of the Engadget Bloggers have already dismissed Microsoft as last generation.

      Yet Microsoft has innovated hand over hand. IPAD/ IPHONE/ Android Phone and Android Tablet are really glorified PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant’s) with a call feature or internet connection.

      Microsoft will definitely dominate. Perhaps that Wireless Carriers are not promoting current WP7 hardware is because of the upcoming hardware line in late 2011 and 2012.

      I encountered the same sort of run around from sales people dismissing the WP7 but I dismissed them right back and in front of other customers. These people are inherently ignorant when it comes to the software at hand. The majority of them are bandwagoners and many of the people on IOS are the “I just want to fit in” crowd. The Android folks were windows users who moved to Android because they still dislike IOS and anything Apple (at least for the most part).

      Point is Engadget is full of ignorant people who dont know good journalism from sensationalism and propaganda.

    • Anonymous

      I think a there is a big section of ex Windows Mobile 6.x users that miss the ability to custom ROM their phones in WP7 and have gone with Android as their phone of choice.  I make this assumption because I fall in that category with my recently replaced Incredible for the Trophy.  I’m liking WP7 but I’m hopeful it can be cracked (again).

      Until it can I suppose I’ll just use my jailbroken iPad for anything the phone can’t do yet.

  • TryllZ

    Finallyd, something that APPLE didn’t invent..

    1.SNAP the screen, I mean who could have thought of that, none but M$..

    2.Swipe from left to go back…

    M$ makes proud..after this 1…this kills the tablet competition after WP7 Mango update…..

    And now I can surely bet WP8 will rule and rake in dolla dolla Bill$ for M$…

    • http://twitter.com/stoneass Assaf Stone

      Umm… Apple “invented”?

      The Mac OS, that Apple supposedly invented, and Microsoft “stole”, was originally Xerox’s…

      So much for /that/ urban myth.

  • Alombelino

    Sad, I looked at Cnet today and not a mention of Windows 8 on the buzz report, but they were drooling about the apple event next week, sad.

    • Anonymous

      It’s the sad state of tech reporting. Apple sells page views because the plebs that make up most of the market fall for Jobs’s great marketing and hyoperbole.

      It really saddens me that people gravitate towards products that are all about aesthetics whereas products that actually are more capable get ignored.

      But it’s like everything in life: simple arguments will always win against well-reasoned, logical arguments because most people are dumb and only understand things when they are grossly simplified.

  • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

    Did he say “the same version of Windows”?

    Does that mean that Microsoft as finally came to its senses and dropped the ideia of a gazillion diferent versions of Windows that no one can tell apart?

  • Red

    Anyone else thought of this:
    Win 8 + Kinect?

  • http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/ Stephanos Anton Ballmerfeld

    Told you people so!

  • http://profiles.google.com/blueandwhite89 Daniel Purdham

    The biggest thing that people dislike about WP7 is the interface start screen, if they can transition users to windows 8 and they get used to the Metro UI they will come to grow accustomed to it and WP7 will take off. 

  • http://profiles.google.com/blueandwhite89 Daniel Purdham

    The biggest thing that people dislike about WP7 is the interface start screen, if they can transition users to windows 8 and they get used to the Metro UI they will come to grow accustomed to it and WP7 will take off.