Courtesy Asus

The Asus Taichi 21 Ultrabook functions both as a laptop and touch-screen tablet.

Something about Microsoft’s Windows 8 seems to bring out the eccentric in PC makers.

In the few months since Win 8 launched, we’ve seen PCs that fold, PCs that slide, PCs with keyboards that pop on and off. But we haven’t seen anything quite like the Taichi 21 from Asus.

The Taichi, which starts at $1,299 for a model with four gigabytes of memory and 128 gigabytes of storage, belongs to a class of PCs known as Ultrabooks — laptops that run on an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and use flash memory chips instead of a conventional hard drive.

What sets it apart is its screen. Or rather, screens — plural.

Open, the Taichi is a fairly conventional laptop, with an 11.6-inch, non-touch-screen display. Closed, it turns into a touch-screen tablet, thanks to another 11.6-inch screen mounted on the outside of the lid.

Using a button on the keyboard, you can switch between the two screens, use them independently or set them to mirror each other, making it potentially attractive for small-group presentations. You can drive from one side, while your audience watches the other.

But there are a number of drawbacks. One is the lack of a touch screen on the “inside” display. Not only does Windows 8′s tile-based home screen beg for it, it’s confusing going back and forth between the two interfaces. I found myself constantly poking the traditional display and wondering why it wouldn’t respond.

Another is that using both screens drains the battery rapidly, especially after adjusting the overly dim default settings for brightness to something a little more comfortable. And while its weight is fine for a laptop — 2.8 pounds — it’s heavy for a tablet.

If you do a lot of presentations, the Taichi is worth a look. As long as there’s a plug nearby. And you don’t mind a little eccentricity in your life.

Original post is Asus Taichi 21 Laptop Will Have You Seeing Double: Rich Jaroslovsky by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

A Toshiba Excite Android tablet is shown at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Google’s Android software for mobile devices has opened up a wide lead in market share, but it hasn’t made the same inroads with a lucrative niche: businesspeople.

While Android is expected to grab 68 percent of the smartphone market this year, according to researcher IDC, only 22 percent of information workers say they want a smartphone based on Google’s software on the job, according to a survey of 9,766 people by Forrester Research. Here’s what the survey said:

• Apple — 26%
• Windows 8 — 20%
• I don’t plan to use a tablet for work — 17%
• Windows 7 or other Windows — 12%
• No preference/Don’t know — 11%
• Android — 11%
• Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook — 1%
• Blackberry Playbook — 1%
• Other — 1%

Why the disparity? Android has done very well with consumers, particularly more price-sensitive ones, Gillett said. Businesspeople can pay Apple’s prices for a premium product, and millions of them already own iPhones and other Apple products and aren’t likely to walk away from their investment, he said.

Those polled may have written off Android because their companies don’t support it beyond e-mail access. That’s because many chief information officers don’t like the fact that almost every model of Android phone uses a slightly different version of the software, which means more testing, security updates and support costs, according to Frank Gillett, a Forrester analyst.

“CIOs are worried that their employees will end up with malware that they’re not likely to get with iOS,” Gillett said. “Google is taking the approach of reacting to problems, while Microsoft and Apple are being more proactive.”

In tablets, Android has an even smaller share among the business crowd, despite its 42.7 percent share of the overall tablet market:

• Apple — 33%
• Android — 22%
• No plans to use  smartphone on corporate network —  16%
• No preference/Don’t know — 11%
• Windows — 10%
• Blackberry — 7%
• Other — 1%

Android’s poor showing is not for lack of trying. Dozens of Android tablets have come to market since the iPad was introduced in 2010. Even more notable is how poorly Android scored relative to Microsoft, which has been a no-show in the tablet market and hadn’t even begun selling its Surface tablet until October.

Original post is Android Is Red Hot, Except With the Business Crowd by Tech Blog.

Courtesy of Microsoft Corp.

Windows Phone 8 start screens.

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11:09 a.m. Ballmer ends by bringing Belfiore and Alba back out. There’s no information on pricing, or precise availability of phone models. But he ended with a bang, offering a free Windows phone for all attendees.

It’s going to be an uphill climb, but Microsoft needs this to succeed. And no doubt, Belfiore is right when he says WP8 is the first significant change from the model Apple created and Android mimicked. I wonder if the improvements from Windows Phone 7 are significant enough to get shoppers buzzing.

11:03 a.m. Phones will be available this weekend and will continue to roll out in  future weeks and months. “We’ve opened a new chapter in our partnership with Verizon Wireless,” which will carry the HTC 8X and Nokia’s Lumia 922. They will have an exclusive on a Samsung Odyssey phone (AT&T got the exclusive on the Lumia 920). And all of Microsoft’s retail stores will have all the phones. People “will be able to see how all these Windows 8 devices work together” to create a unique experience. “Between Windows 8, Microsoft Surface and Windows Phone 8, you won’t be able to turn on a TV or open a magazine without seeing a Windows ad. This is a remarkable, remarkable time, and it is THE time for Windows Phone 8 … Our hardware partners are all in.”

10:56 a.m. Ballmer is talking about their process of wanting to “build a phone that could be personal for each of us,” including a variety of hardware with different sizes, colors and security features. “The simple act of pinning who and what you care about (on a WP8 device’s home screen) will immediately make the phone uniquely yours,” he says. “Create a room and pin it to your start screen.”

“If you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who will use Windows 8 in the next year, there is no better phone for you.” He says the PC, tablet and phone will share the same “iconic look and feel,” and the ability to share all your content and apps if you use your common Microsoft account. “It will all stay in sync, and it will all stay backed up.”

Now he’s talking about “new, killer hardware.” He starts with the Nokia phone. “Nokia as a company is exclusively focused on Windows phone,” and is doing “spectacular work.” The Lumia 920 has world class camera, featuring optical image stabliziation — “even in low light or with a shaky hand.” So Nokia gets the first shout out.

Now comes the Samsung ATIV S — with a 4.8-inch screen and great battery life.

Next up is the Windows Phone 8X from HTC — “a remarkable phone.” He says HTC’s designers were inspired by the Metro UI to create phones with similar lines and colors.

10:54 a.m. Belfiore finishes his one-man show, and intros a video with Ballmer talking about how he uses his phone. Ballmer is here, it turns out. “It’s absolutely great to be here.” He says there was an “incredible response” to Windows 8 and Surface with demand over their first weekend on sale. “Well above our expectations,” he says.

10:52 a.m. This fall, there will be sync companion apps to help you move your iTunes collection to Windows Phone 8. But the focus is on integration with other Windows products. “No other phone works this nicely across your PC, your phone, and your home entertainment system,” he says. (So long as they all run some kind of Windows.)

10:46 a.m. Now he’s talking about integration of the experience with Windows and X-Box. The first slide says “SkyDrive,” whick will be the back-end cloud repository to keep user’s files and other data synchronized across devices. I have been hearing about SkyDrive for years, without trying it, much less understanding it. And now he’s talking about OneNote, which has a loyal following among fans of the app — but a small fan club relative to the massive mainstream markets Microsoft needs to win over to compete with Apple and Android. Skydrive lets you store as many photos as you want, compared to the 1,000-limit in Apple’s PhotoStream. Nice, but getting people to love SkyDrive in a world of iCloud, DropBox, Evernote and other utilities could be like a longshot.

10:36 a.m. Jessica Alba comes out on stage to talk up Kids Corner and how it’s helped her manage her life and kids. “It’s a very clutch feature,” she says. Again, very conversational, to put it kindly. If what Microsoft is going for is realistic human interactions, rather than something slick and choreographed, it’s succeeding. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

10:29 a.m. Now there’s a video of Belfiore’s three kids, all begging to play on his smartphone, as a way to introduce a feature called “Kids Corner,” that limits the apps kids can use.

And now he’s bringing his three kids out. Sidney, the shy one, has her teddy bear. Cute, but the overall effect is not very polished. Belfiore is one brave man. He’s up there with his kids goofing around, playing games. But he saves the day,  saying, “If you’re a parent, you can relate to this.” And later, notes how quiet the kids have become. Boy, talk about an anti-Apple approach to keynotes.

10:26 a.m. “DataSense” is a new feature that allows you to touch a Live Tile to see your overall data usage, to show you how much data you’ve used on each app. It will provide notifications. But he says the big difference is that DataSense automatically makes adjustments, to provide 45 percent more Web surfing. “That’s a lot more Web pages, and a lot more confidence that you can use your smartphone to the fullest extent.” The first carrier that will offer it is Verizon.

10:22 a.m. Belfiore slips in a big piece of information: the public SDK for WP8 will be available tomorrow at the company’s Build developer conference. This SDK is strangely late for a company that is universally hailed as world-class when it comes to building developer platforms. One reason Windows has dominated PCs is that developers always had great tools to make the best apps before they looked at the Mac or other platforms.

10:22 a.m. The first spicy news: Pandora is doing a version optimized for WP8 — and is giving away a year of free premium service (more likely, Microsoft is giving it away).

10:21 a.m. They will have 46 of the top 50 apps available on Windows Phone. He doesn’t say when, but ticks off some titles. “Temple Run” is one, “Urban Spoon” is another. “Fairway Solitaire” is a game that works across Windows platform, so can pick up your game whether on tablet, PC or phone.

10:17 a.m. There’s a new version of Twitter, and many other apps. And — not too surprisingly — a new version of Skype so it “feels like a natural part of using the phone.” The app is always on, but without draining the  battery (again, no explanation of how they pulled this off). I wonder how the carriers who are central to Microsoft’s chances will like this?

10:12 a.m. Belfiore is showing a video as a kind of value statement for the platform. It starts with “We are not for everybody. We’re for the individual.” Very nice concept — “We’re for the working dad,” “the deal-seeker,” the “road tripper.” The idea: This isn’t a hero phone, a la Apple. “It’s the most personal smartphone operating system you can get.”

First feature: more powerful Live Tiles, the central design element of WP8′s interface. They are reconfigurable, and can integrate various kinds of data — say, about your family’s social networking activity. “Only Windows Phone has ‘live apps.” He says that the software will now integrate with your e-wallet, though didn’t explain how. And there’s something new. “We have a built a new lock-screen that’s powered by Live Apps.” So rather than see the “same old image you put there four months ago,” it will continually change.

Belfiore says he tried to count the number of times he looked at his lock screen, but says it got to be way too big a number. “You make the choice,” of whether to show sports scores or family pictures or a new optimized version of Facebook — so you can see your recent Facebook photos, for example.

10:08 a.m. “It hasn’t really evolved much in the last five years,” Belfiore says of the smart phone experience. Apple originated it, and “it was copied by Android,” he says. Hmm, wonder if Microsoft sees Android as more the initial target for taking market share. “Our way is to put people at the center of the experience, not icons for apps.”

10:06 a.m. Today, we’ll see the end-user features — the reasons why consumers will want to buy a WP8 phone (other than the core-OS that was previewed in June).

10:03 a.m. They’re starting with a video, showing tiles with a voiceover from Joe Belfiore (manager of the Windows Phone program) describing how he uses his Windows Phone 8 device. He’s asking if there are any Windows Phone fans in the room, asking them to hold them up. Seems like the room is filled with mostly partners and employees — and a few empty seats. That’s probably the impact of Sandy, though. But where’s Ballmer?

9:52 a.m. So far this beats the typical Apple launch: Microsoft is feeding reporters breakfast burritos and Bloody Marys ahead of the launch of Windows Phone 8. If ever lubrication were needed, this is it. Microsoft needs a successful launch of this software to generate the needed momentum to stake out a meaningful third place in the mobile wars. The bad news: Most of the news is out, and there’s no way Microsoft gets the attention it hoped for with all eyes on Hurricane Sandy (or here in the San Francisco area, the World Series champs Giants).

Original post is Live Blog: Windows Phone 8 Event by Tech Blog.

“In a typical 40-hour workweek, I’d have maybe 20 to 30 hours of meetings,” said Betts, who was tasked with squashing bugs found in Microsoft’s computer operating system. “Too many people are invited. They last too long. Too little is accomplished.”

Betts left Microsoft in August for GitHub, a San Francisco-based service that makes it easy for coders to collaborate on projects. Now he works without those interruptions, Betts said.

For example, GitHub’s first program designed for Windows was created without the typical inefficiencies of face-to-face gatherings. The Windows client, released today, allows Microsoft users to easily synchronize with code hosted on GitHub, rather than having to micromanage files using the website. The release is part of a bigger push into the personal computer industry’s biggest market, which will require converting many of those developers to the ways of open source.

GitHub, which has 79 employees, hired another person from Microsoft in December to work on the company’s Windows program. Phil Haack (pronounced “hack,” an appropriate name for a programmer) ran the software giant’s Web-development platform, ASP.net.

Haack also felt the burden of meetings at his former employer.

“Microsoft is a very meeting-driven, e-mail heavy, face-time culture,” Haack said. “It’s a stable company. It pays really well. There’s a lot of great projects you can work on. But what I found is, I spent a disproportionate amount of my time in meetings and dealing with political issues.”

A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment.

GitHub’s approach to work is shaped, in part, by open-source thinking, said the Microsoft converts. The management structure is flat. Workers are expected to follow through on their assignments without being closely monitored. Ideas are exchanged through an internal communication system, providing a permanent log. People can work remotely. All of this has translated into hardly any meetings.

Much to the satisfaction of the former Microsoft engineers, the number on Betts’s meeting-cost counter is a lot less these days.

Original post is Meeting Canceled: How Ex-Microsoft Workers Converted to GitHub’s Ways by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Michael Blann

Hackers' favorite security hole last year was a Windows vulnerability from four years ago, according to Symantec.

If you need more proof that users are a weak link in computer security, look no further than today’s report from Symantec, which showed that hackers’ favorite target in 2011 was a security hole fixed about four years ago.

The flaw, in Microsoft Windows software, is no secret. In fact, it’s one of the most well-known security holes of all time, since it allowed the Conficker worm to spread and infect millions of PCs in 2008 and 2009, in one of the biggest hacking attacks on record.

Even though Microsoft closed the security hole long ago, it remains an attractive target because so many Windows users don’t update their machines. Hackers launched more than 61 million attacks against the vulnerability, making it the top target last year, according to Symantec.

Hackers attacking older vulnerabilities isn’t new. Symantec said that criminals prefer security holes that have been around for awhile because there is often a large pool of potential victims. Also, information about newer vulnerabilities is expensive on the black market, and attacking recently discovered bugs can attract more attention.

The finding illustrates a point that security professionals have long made, which is that many users aren’t doing their part to protect their computers. As Symantec’s report shows, that’s a behavior cyber criminals are counting on.

Original post is Hackers’ Favorite Target Last Year Was a Blast From the Past by Tech Blog.

Courtesy Microsoft

In Microsoft's model shop, Young Kim's team built around 80 prototypces of the Arc Touch Mouse before settling on the final one.

When Young Kim was dreaming up his award-winning mouse, the industrial design manager for Microsoft found inspiration in an unlikely place: Crate & Barrel.

The Arc Touch Mouse is a thin, black bar with a tail made of sueded silicone. The user packs it flat and then curves it to create a regular, ergonomic mouse when needed.

In developing it, Kim’s team perused housewares stores examining things like silicone oven mitts to find the right varieties of the pliable material. They also went to Home Depot and toy stores to get ideas about materials they could use to build prototypes.

The $60 mouse is largely made up of two different pieces of silicone sandwiched together, with the more flexible one on top and the stiffer one on the bottom. This way, when a user curves the mouse, the top bends without causing the bottom to buckle.

The emphasis on craftsmanship at Microsoft is a change from an earlier penny-pinching era when designers had a harder time convincing executives to pony up for top-quality materials, said Kim, the company’s ninth industrial engineer. Microsoft now has 30.

This shift is part of a larger campaign by Microsoft to find its design soul as it revamps the look of its products, such as Windows. The company is losing PC customers to Apple’s iPad and is trying to recover ground in the mobile market with a new-look Windows Phone.

Courtesy Microsoft

Microsoft's Arc Touch Mouse flattens when stored and can be curved when needed for use.

The Arc Touch Mouse, which took about 20 months to develop, has been honored with a 2011 International Design Excellence Award and a Red Dot Award from Germany’s Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen.

Still, for all its awards, the mouse isn’t seen as moving the needle on Microsoft’s larger issues. But it does point to the software giant’s focus on design.

Kim’s team built about 80 different models to find the right size, degree of curvature and amount of resistance needed to curve and flatten the mouse (in order to keep users from accidentally collapsing it during use). There can be no more than 0.1 millimeter of space between the two pieces of silicone. Any more and Microsoft requires the factory to discard the piece and start over.

“It’s not even an option these days to have mediocre quality,” he said. “That’s something my team obsesses over.”

Original post is Where Microsoft Designers Found Inspiration for Silicone Mouse by Tech Blog.