Windows 8 tablet info soon: B8 blog B4 BUILD

Where's all the information about Windows 8 and tablets? Here it comes, as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) lifts the veil of secrecy. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers pore over the Building Windows 8 blog ("B8").

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Baby echoes Freddie Mercury's 1985 Live Aid performance...

Mark Hachman reports:

Microsoft's "Building Windows 8" blog...emphasize[s] Microsoft's willingness to...work with its customer base and developers. ... [T]he next major milestone...will be Microsoft's BUILD conference, scheduled for Sept. 13.
...
The Building Windows 8 blog, however, will apparently be a forum to resolve...technical details, and [bridge] the gap between Windows 7 and the changes...- including tablets, phones, cloud storage, and apps - that have emerged since. ... Microsoft has spoken little about what particular features it will add to the OS.   

   
Alex Wilhelm talks Windows 8 beta:

It is now all but certain that the public testing cycle...will commence in 2011. ... Microsoft has finally given the world a more ‘set’ beta...schedule. ...[T]he rumor that Microsoft [will use] BUILD to put an early edition of Windows 8 into the hands of developers is correct.   

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky blogs with humble pride:

Windows 8 reimagines Windows for a new generation of computing devices. ... Welcome to “Building Windows 8”...this blog is an important part of developing Windows 8. ... We’re genuinely excited to talk about the development...and to engage thoughtfully with the community.
...
[So] much has changed since Windows 95...when the "desktop" metaphor was established...mobile...wireless...sizes...storage...touch-screen. ... These changes...motivate the most significant changes to Windows. ... [W]e've thoughtfully engineered changes across the full range of Windows capabilities...there are so many unique and important lenses through which to view Windows 8.
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[S]tay tuned and join us in this dialog.   

Andrew Cunningham reads between the lines:

Sinofsky...gives no new information...but it does reiterate a lot of what we already know.
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Also evident...is that the company still remembers the lessons learned from Vista. ...[S]ome have expressed "frustration over how little [Microsoft has] communicated"...but noted that Microsoft has "learned lessons over the years about the perils of talking about features,"...a reference to the many features Longhorn shed over its...development cycle.
...
Windows 8 still has no firm release date, but...we'll probably see a beta sometime in early 2012, followed by...RTM in the summer.   

Meanwhile, Paul Thurrott is super, thanks for asking:

Windows 8 isn't just about a new front-end. ... This is one of the worries I've heard a lot from users, that [it's] simply...Windows 7 plus a new Start screen.
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[N]ative Windows apps...have become less important. ... I have no idea whether recasting Windows applications as HTML 5/JS/CSS web apps will do the trick. ... But Microsoft appears to understand that the focus is changing.
...
Stay tuned!    

  
And Finally...
Baby echoes Freddie Mercury's 1985 Live Aid performance
[hat tip: Philip Jones]


 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.