Best Music Apps

15 of the best music apps

Lanyard
Lanyard is a beautiful way to keep and share memories of the gigs you’ve been to.
This Web app (native mobile apps and a Spotify app are soon to launch) allows you to search for gigs that you’ve been to in the past, and then add a gallery of photos, a rating out of five and short comment on your thoughts about the show.
➤ Lanyard
Radical.FM
Radical.FM entered public beta in November, to challenge Spotify et al with a very ambitious donation-based business model.
The Web-based platform offers a holistic broadcasting platform, combining a personal service aimed at DJs (“RadCasting”) and Talk Show hosts (“Talk”), with curated radio à la Pandora, on-demand playlists similar to Spotify and a distribution channel for indie artists. It’s completely free to use, with no advertising either.
It pretty much ticks all the boxes you’d want from any music service, except it does all seem a bit too good to be true. Here’s hoping it can make a success of it based entirely on donations from the music-loving public.
➤ Radical.FM
Instinct
Instinct launched its sweet interactive guitar-tuition Web app to the public earlier this month. With its built-in pitch-detection tool, you simply play along to your computer’s microphone and the app tells you whether your guitar’s in tune, and also whether the note you’re playing is the right one for the song.
There are eight different courses at the time of writing, from absolute beginner all the way up to 12-bar blues.
➤ Instinct
Qusic
Qusic is a Web app that ensures you never miss a new music release by your favourite artists.
Much in the way that Songkick (whose data Qusic utilises to identify a user’s music tastes) makes sure you’ll never miss a gig by one of your favorite bands, by alerting you whenever they have a gig scheduled in your town, Qusic ensures you’re kept up to date with new releases by using information available via Spotify’s API and sending you regular email updates.
➤ Qusic
Richseam
Richseam is a music discovery platform that’s built around artists’ connections and collaborations. It surfaces these connections and collaborations with a view towards helping you discover new artists and music – so if your favorite jazz band’s drummer also played guitar in a crazy punk outfit, well, Richseam’s Web app will help surface this information.
➤ Richseam
Mixtaping.FM
Mixtaping.FM is a simple Web app that does a pretty good job of reimagining the mix-tape for the digital generation, taking the full analogy beyond that of the music itself, onto cover art and liner notes too.
Through tapping existing (legal) online music channels, Mixtaping.FM has the potential to build a great service. Sure, it is just as easy (maybe even easier) to build and share playlists within the aforementioned services (Spotify and Rdio), but by throwing an audio cassette layer into the mix (pardon the pun), it’s a really fun way to create compendiums of compositions.
➤ Mixtaping.FM

Vjay
Algoriddim, the company that created the Apple Design Award-winning Djay app for iPad, released a similarly impressive product for making video mashups back in June, called Vjay. It later launched for other iOS devices, too.
Videos can be placed side by side within the app and beat-matching makes the process easier to create a live performance or something that can be shared with friends over the usual social channels.
Users can choose to mix with existing videos or record on the iPad’s camera to create their own content. The original Djay app provided a pretty slick and simple to use interface for scratching and adapting tunes and Vjay does similar things with video and audio together.
➤ Vjay: iPad | iPhone/iPod Touch
Indie Shuffle
Indie Shuffle’s iOS app taps the SoundCloud API to provide curated, ad-free playlists based on similar artists and genres. Users can launch their playlists starting with a specific genre, browse the ‘Popular’ list, or check out the latest recommendations. Each song also has a review written by one of their staff-writers.

  

In addition to viewing by ‘Latest’ or ‘Popular’, you can simply browse the catalogue by genre or view your favorites – the latter of which requires you to log-in using your Facebook credentials. A little bit annoying, but not a deal-breaker.
➤ Indie Shuffle | iOS
Sonarflow iTunes
Sonarflow iTunes is a gorgeous, visual music-discovery app for iOS.
The mobile app, which integrates with your iTunes account, sets about finding music based on the artists and genres you already listen to. It offers a very visual, and fairly intuitive, user interface for exploring both your music, and other music on iTunes.
In Discovery Mode Sonarflow recommends artists and songs based on the music on your device – so if you have Bob Dylan on there, you’ll see little bubbled-suggestions of artists such as Neil Young or Woody Guthrie.
Forget lists and searches, this is all about swiping and pinching as Sonarflow throws suggestions at you in an aesthetically-pleasing, dynamic-wordcloud kind of way.
➤ Sonarflow iTunes | iOS
WhoSampled
WhoSampled scans the music on your iOS device to tell you who has sampled, remixed and covered each song. It really is that simple.
➤ WhoSampled | iOS
Beatsurfing
Beatsurfing is a 3-dimensional Organic MIDI Controller Builder for the iPad, that allows people to control any MIDI-enabled device (including software, hardware or even selected iPad apps through Virtual MIDI) and even ‘draw’ their own behaviors.
Beatsurfing – The Organic MIDI Controller Builder – Official Teaser from Vlek Data on Vimeo.
It was designed to be used for live performances and studio productions.
➤ Beatsurfing | iPad
Chirp
Chirp is a file-sharing app that sends things to your friends via the gift of song.

This iOS app is quite brilliant, considering it doesn’t make you do anything crazy to share a photo, link or note. It’s a functionality similar to that of music app Shazam, in that it listens for things to be added to your queue. The items have a uniquely identifiable tone, so if your friend has Chirp open too, the tone will be processed and the item will be shared with them.
The tones that Chirp generates uniquely for each of your items can be heard from other Chirp users, so you could share a link with ten people at a restaurant simply by playing the tone to them. Just tap the + button, thenpick something to share:
➤ Chirp | iOS
Songkick
One year almost to the day since Songkick rolled out its iOS app in June 2011, the live music discovery platform finally arrived on Android.
Songkick is a service that scans music on your device and lets you know about gigs and concerts in your area based on your music taste. You can also integrate it with Spotify, Facebook, Google Music, Pandora and Last.fm if you’re not one to store music physically on your device.
We like Songkick. A lot.
➤ Songkick | Android
CrowdStream
CrowdStream is a free app for live events that can also put a few more pounds (or dollars) in the pockets of artists. The basic premise is to bring fans together around the artists they like and encourage them to interact during live events, such as concerts.
It’s worth checking out if you’re looking to meet new people based on a shared taste in music (or other live performance). Don’t miss our other 2012 lists for more great recommendations.
➤ CrowdStream: Android | iOS
SnapNPlay
This app was more about the potential than what it offers, as we noted at the time when we covered this. It scans sheet music and plays it back to you, though from our testing it was far from flawless.
What I would say about this app, over and above how it actually performed at the time, is that the idea itself is awesome and it hints at the potential of such an app, if it can be honed and improved.
The developers says that they plan to continue working on this for years to come “making it better and more useful”, noting that they are already working on editing/deleting/adding notes, as well as improving the user interface.

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How To Transfer Contact to iphone 5 from 4s/4 iphone

How to Transfer Contacts to iPhone 5, iOS 6 from iPhone 4S/4/3G/3GS

 iPhone  

  Just purchased the new iPhone 5 and want to transfer your contacts from your old iPhone 4S/4/3G/3GS to iPhone 5? Backup Assistant isn’t available on the iPhone, so is there any way to transfer old iPhone’s contacts other than bringing the two iPhones to the Store?
It will be quite easy with the help of iMacsoft iPhone Contacts Transfer on Mac or ImToo iPhone Contacts Transfer on PC

• Part 1: Transfer Contacts to iPhone 5, iOS 6 from iPhone 4S/4/3G/3GS on a Mac computer (Mountain Lion included)
• Part 2: Transfer Contacts to iPhone 5, iOS 6 from iPhone 4S/4/3G/3GS on a Windows PC (Windows 8 included)

Introduction of iMacsoft iPhone Contacts Transfer

iMacsoft iPhone Contacts Transfer for Mac or ImToo iPhone Contacts Transfer for Windows helps to easily transfer all iPhone contacts or selected iPhone contacts from iPhone to computer as a .txt file and a .csv file as well as transfer iPhone contacts backup .csv to iPhone. Moreover, you can also transfer Music, Video, Podcast, TV Show, etc. from iPhone to PC, iPhone to iTunes or PC to iPhone efficiently and simply with this iPhone Contact to PC Transfer.

Part 1: How to transfer Contacts to iPhone 5 from iPhone 4S/iPhone 4/iPhone 3G/iPhone 3GS on a Mac computer?

Free download iMacsoft iPhone Contact Transfer for Mac. Install and launch the program.

Step 1: Connect your iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G to Mac

iMacsoft iPhone contacts Transfer will recognize the device automatically and displays the device information in the interface.

Step 2: Export your iPhone 4S/iPhone 4/iPhone 3GS/iPhone 3G contacts to computer as .csv

In the left directory tree, choose the “Contacts” which you want to backup contacts to local. All contacts will be shown in the right list immediately.
Check the wanted contacts in the right list, click “Export checked files to local” button in the main menu to backup contacts to Mac/PC computer

Step 3: Import .csv just exported in Step 3 to iPhone 5

1. Run the Address book application, add import .CSV files to it. Then you can view all the contact lists on the address books screen.


2. Run iTunes and connect iPhone 5 to Mac or PC. In iTunes, choose “Info” menu and select “sync address book contacts” option. Then press “Apply” button to sync all contacts you select to iPhone 5 in several seconds.

Part 2: How to transfer Contacts to iPhone 5 from iPhone 4S/iPhone 4/iPhone 3G/iPhone 3GS on a Windows PC?

Free download iPhone Contact Transfer for Windows. Install and launch the software.

Step 1: Connect your iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G to PC

ImToo iPhone contacts Transfer will recognize the device automatically and displays the device information in the interface.

Step 2: Export your iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G contacts to computer as .csv

In the left directory tree, choose the “Contacts” which you want to backup contacts to local. All contacts will be shown in the right list immediately.
Check the wanted contacts in the right list, click “Backup All Contacts” button at the bottom of the interface.

Step 3: Import .csv just exported in Step 3 to iPhone 5

Connect iPhone 5 to Mac or PC.
In the left directory tree, choose the target “Contacts” that you want to import contacts into.
Click “Import Contacts to Device” button at the bottom of the interface, choose “Import Contacts from .csv File”, and choose the source contacts file in the dialog box that appears, then start importing.

Now you’ve transfered contacts from old iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G to the new iPhone 5.

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Greeting Scripts for your Phone and Voice Mail

Personal Greeting Scripts voice mail
Customers develop confidence when they know what to expect. Even a standard personal
greeting will help to achieve this. Here is an example of what a personal greeting might
include:

“Hello, this is Valerie of ABC Corporation. I am in the office, but with another customer at
the moment. Please tell me how I can assist you. Leave a message after the tone,
including your phone number and the best time to call. If there is research I can do
before returning your call, please include details in your message. I will return your call
just as soon as possible.”

If you want to give callers an alternative, your greeting might end with an instruction such as
this:

“If you would like to speak to someone immediately, dial extension 1234 and a help desk
analyst will assist you.”

If you have an after hours number where you can be dependably reached, your message
should provide this information:

“Hello, this is Valerie of ABC Corporation. Our normal business hours are from 7:30 am
to 4:30 pm. If this is an emergency, please page me at _______ or call me at ________.
Otherwise leave a message after the tone, including your phone number and the best
time to call. I will return your call just as soon as possible.”

It is not necessary to update your personal greeting every day. However, if you will be out
of the office for more than a day, you may want to change your greeting. A message
explaining when you will return, and who to contact is probably sufficient:

“Hello, this is Valerie of ABC Corporation. It is Monday, February 1st, and I am on
business travel through Wednesday, February 3rd. If your call is urgent and requires an
immediate response, please contact the help desk at extension 1234. Otherwise, I will
be checking voice mail, so please leave a message, including your phone number and
the best time to call. I will return your call just as soon as possible.”

Telephone Techniques

The help desk is the first point of contact for most customers. Good telephone techniques
are critical. The following guidelines are recommended for enhancing customer
relationships.
·  Smile. It can alter your voice.
·  Sit up and take a deep breath. It is relaxing and will take the tension out of your voice.
·  Be conscious of all background noise.
·  Respond as quickly as possible, without interrupting the customer.
·  Speak clearly.
·  Be courteous. Treat callers as you would like to be treated.
·  Listen carefully. It is the best way to clearly understand a customer’s needs.
·  Evaluate the urgency of the customer’s issue by asking questions. Find out the
implications.
·  Do not draw a conclusion until all of the information has been presented.
·  If you believe that additional time is needed to research the issue, discuss options with
the customer.
·  Once the issue is resolved, be certain that the customer is satisfied with the resolution.
·  Fully document all of the details in the database.
·  Do not place a customer on hold unless it is absolutely necessary. If you need to place
a customer on hold, then explain how long you expect to be away from the telephone.
Obtain permission for putting them on hold. Always check back with the caller if you are
longer than expected. Ask if they would prefer you to call them back by a certain time.
Always thank the caller for holding.
A customer should not have to call the help desk to find out the status of an open service
ticket. Status updates should be provided when service times exceed the service level
agreement.

www.elitebuyer.com
135 e. 9th st, ste b, long beach, ca 90813
562-366-4177

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Delete User Profile on Windows 7 Domain Computer

There are hundreds of reasons why the local profile of a domain user would need to be deleted, in fact, too many to list. The main reasons why a profile gets deleted from a machine in a domain environment is because the profile is either corrupt or to save disk space. A corrupt profile can be caused by many things such as a virus or an application being installed that is not compatible with Windows 7. To save disk space, administrators usually setup a script or Group Policy Object that removes the cached profiles from computers. There have been recent additions to the way profiles have been stored in Windows 7, which are outlined below.
Microsoft introduced a whole new way of storing profiles in Windows Vista and Windows 7. In Windows 7, the cached profile is copied from the server to the "C:\users" folder as well as a key is created in the Registry with information about the user and profile. A UID (user i-d) is created to give that user a specific one which differentiates a logon profile path from another's. Basically, if you delete a user's folder in "C:\users", then the person whose profile you deleted won't be able to logon. A message will come up saying that the user profile service isn't running, but it's because the operating system is trying to create a folder and it's not matching with the UID created before. The quick fix is to go into the Registry and delete it manually. Microsoft supports a way to remove a user's profile along with the registry key using a GUI provided with the Windows operating system automatically. Mind you, in Windows XP, this was never an issue about profiles being deleted.
Below are two different ways to delete a user's profile. The first way is the Microsoft supported way, and the second method is how to do it manually by going into Windows Explorer and the Registry.
Microsoft Supported Way:
1. Open your start menu and type in the search bar "advanced user"
2. Open "Configure advanced user profile properties"
3. Select the profile you would like to delete and press delete
4. Select yes (the profile is completely removed now)
Unsupported Way:
1. Restart the computer to "unlock" the user accounts so they can be deleted
2. Open Windows Explorer to "C:\Users"
3. Right click the profile you would like to delete and press delete and the yes.
4. Open "regedit.exe"
5. Navigate to "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList"
6. Click the sub-key that corresponds with the profile you deleted and right click and delete it

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How to Download Windows 8 iso for Free

How-To Download Windows 8 For Free

After the completion of Windows 8′s development, Microsoft provided Free Windows 8 download for MSDN, Technet subscribers but along with them they also released a Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation Version, which is free to download and doesn’t require key for installation.
The Enterprise Evaluation version can be used to evaluate Windows 8 for 90 days, but the best part is that several hacks have already appeared on the net and by following them you can extend this period for lifetime.
The Enterprise Evaluation version comes packed with all the features Windows 8, so you need not worry for that. Also the ISO file is stored on Microsoft’s servers, so you will get very high speeds than any other torrent files while downloading.
Here’s the Checksum hashes of the ISO files,
Windows 8 (x86) English
2511 MB
File Name: en_windows_8_x86_dvd_915417.iso
SHA1: 22D680EC53336BEE8A5B276A972CEBA104787F62
Windows 8 (x64) English
3416 MB
File Name: en_windows_8_x64_dvd_915440.iso
SHA1: 1CE53AD5F60419CF04A715CF3233F247E48BEEC4
And Here’s what you have been looking for,
Download Windows 8 For free- English x86 version
Download Windows 8 For free- English x64 version

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Five solid FTP clients that also happen to be free

Five Apps

1. FileZilla

FileZilla is a cross platform client (Windows, Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X, and more) that offers tons of features, such as support for FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS), and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). It supports resume and files over 4GB. It has a site manager and transfer queue, a powerful filtering system, an easy to use networking configuring wizard, and much more. Filezilla is GPL and works seamlessly with FileZill Server.

2. gFTP

gFTP hasn’t been in development for a while, but still stands as a solid FTP solution for the Linux desktop. gFTP features FTP, FTPS (control connection only), HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, and FSP protocols. It also features FTP and HTTP proxy server support, and bookmarks tools. It supports FXP file transfer, UNIX, EPLF, Novell, MacOS, VMS, MVS, and NT (DOS) style directory listings. Though the development of gFTP seems to have stopped (latest stable release in 2008), the software still works on the latest releases of nearly every distribution (tested on Ubuntu 12.10 to make sure).

3. Free FTP

Free FTP is all about simplicity. From the interface to the features, with Free FTP you will be transferring files quickly and easily. Features include multiple server profiles, the ability to transfer files in binary, ASCII, or auto mode. Free FTP includes drag and drop support and an easy to use and unique bookmarks tool. Free FTP works with Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8. With the bookmarks tool you can not only save server information but local information - so transferring files from a specific directory to a specific server is as simple as selecting a bookmark and then dragging and dropping the files to be transferred.

4. BareFTP

BareFTP is another Linux client that makes use of the Mono framework on the GNOME desktop environment. BareFTP focuses on simplicity and supports transfers with the following protocols: FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS), and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). Any level of user would be immediately at home with the BareFTP interface. Unlike gFTP, BareFTP is still in development (though the developer has been on a temporary hiatus due to other projects). Because of the issues with Mono, BareFTP is being ported into a strict Python port.

5. FireFTP

FireFTP is a unique FTP solution in that it is an addon for the Firefox browser. Because of this, it not only works across platforms, it also already works within a familiar environment. FireFTP features: SSL/TLS/SFTP support, directory comparison, and support for nearly all encoding. It also features a search and filter system, integrity checks, drag and drop, remote editing, file hashing, proxy support, FXP support, timestamp synchronization, CHMOD and recursive CHMOD changes, and much more.

Bottom line

FTP isn’t going away anytime soon and for anyone looking for a solid FTP client, here are five free tools that should meet nearly any need. Whether you’re looking for a simple tool or one with plenty of features - you’ll find what you’re looking for here.

elitebuyer 135. 9th st. long beach, ca 90813

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Windows 8 Cheat Sheet how to

Windows 8 Cheat Sheet

Windows 8, let me guess, that’ll be the follow-up to Windows 7?

Yup, you got it in one.

OK, so basically same stuff, different number, am I right?

Not quite: Windows 8 differs quite radically from what comes before. Windows president Steven Sinofsky claims that Windows 8 represents a “generational change” for Windows, the likes of which has not seen since the release of Windows 95.

How so?

Well for a start it’s designed to run on more than just a PC. Windows 8 is made to run on both laptop and desktop computer and tablet hardware, scaling its interface to different screen sizes.

But Windows 7 tablets didn’t exactly take over the world…

True, Microsoft knows this and is aware that as tablets fly off the shelves it needs to have a viable operating system in the slate space. The problem with Windows 7 on tablets is that it was first and foremost a desktop OS, with tiny fiddly icons designed for a mouse pointer and not chubby fingers. That’s why, with Windows 8, Microsoft has devised a tile-based interface, known as Modern UI,that is designed around touch.

So what’s Modern UI got to offer?

The interface is based around interacting with tiles, basically large icons whose size makes them easy to touch. These tiles can be tapped or clicked to run local or web apps, or to go to websites. Tiles can be swapped in and out of blocks, for instance to build blocks of apps or sites that are most commonly used, or related to specific topics like work. Tiles also link to online services like the Windows Store, where users can buy new Modern UI apps, and system settings like Control Panel.
Certain tiles can be set up to display dynamic information. For instance an RSS reader tile can display the latest story in the feed or a calendar tile could show your next appointment. In this way real time information can streamed straight in to the Windows 8 Start screen.
Navigation of the Windows 8 Start screen is well-suited to touch, with users able to drag and pinch-and-zoom to manoeuvre through blocks of tiles and to rearrange tiles by dragging and dropping, or resizing them with their fingers. Edges of the screen also play an important role, swiping from the left or right border brings up bars – known as Charms - for quick interactions with the system or an app, and a touchscreen keyboard can also be summoned to enter text.
Navigating the apps themselves is again designed to work well with touch, with easy-to-hit icons and tiles, and single gesture swipes to perform tasks such as flicking through running apps or shutting down an app.

Windows 8 Start screen

What if I just want to use it on a bog standard laptop?

Then you can use mouse and keyboard to navigate the Modern UI. Some users of the early builds of Windows 8 complained that Modern UI is not intuitive without a touchscreen, but Microsoft has sought to address this with a host of mouse and keyboard shortcuts. For example mousing to the corners of the screen allows for fast navigation, and apps, files or settings can be called by typing a name, or just the first letters of the name, into the Windows 8 Start screen. Also all of the hotkeys from Windows 7 work in the Modern UI 8 interface. Microsoft’s goal with Windows 8 is, after all, for it to be as easy to use on a tablet as on a PC.

What happened to the old Windows desktop?

It’s still there but as a Windows 8 app, as by default Windows 8 users log into the Modern UI tile-based Start screen. The Desktop app is a full-screen Windows 7-style desktop, with the usual Recycle Bin, Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and taskbar. On a traditional Intel or AMD-based PC hardware the desktop will run legacy apps, such as those that run on a Windows 7 machine. However ARM-based hardware, such as most tablets, will not be able to run third party Windows desktop apps in Windows 8, only Microsoft desktop apps such as Notepad and Calculator.
The desktop can even be used with touch. Those who recall trying to hit tiny icons on a tablet running Windows 7 will be pleased to learn that Microsoft has implemented what it calls “fuzzy hit targeting”, which works out which button or icon it’s most likely you wanted to trigger. Reports are that it’s not perfect but is an improvement over Windows 7.

Does the cloud get a look in?

Of course, online integration is woven throughout Windows 8. On the social side the People app allows contacts from multiple sources and social networks - such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - to be mashed together into a single stream, with live updates from individuals or groups displaying on tiles.
There’s also some serious syncing. Sign into Windows 8 using a Microsoft account and it will sync your settings between every Windows 8 machine you use. This will let you share your address book, account details for services like Facebook and Twitter, email and instant messages and the like between different devices. On top of this there’s the ability for users to sync apps they’ve bought from the Windows Store or files stored on Microsoft’s SkyDrive service between devices.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of Windows 8 is how it integrates online information with what’s stored on your machine.Modern UI’s simple search will not only scour file, apps and settings on the device, as well as online info, but also look within apps that have been enabled to take advantage of the search feature, for example looking for a track in a music app or a contact in a social network.

What else is cool?

There’s the fast boot time, Microsoft demoed Windows 8 booting in eight seconds on an ultrabook at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) earlier this year. There’s also an easy reinstall option that allows a clean install of Windows without the need to delete any personal data stored on the device.
And for sheer wow factor there’s its ability to work with some gigantic screens. At MWC Microsoft demoed Windows 8 running on an 82-inch display with multiple people using it. Microsoft said that up to 10 people using all their fingers could interact with the display at the same time.

What’s Windows 8 got to offer business?

Windows 8 – particularly Windows 8 Pro - contains a range of features relevant to enterprise - helping to mange consumerisation, encryption, remote updates and virtualisation.
For a start, having a single OS that can be used on a desktop or laptop PC and a tablet may appeal to enterprises looking to provide and manage a single computing environment for staff inside and outside of the office.
Many features aimed at business are designed to make it easier to work outside the office. DirectAccess allows remote users to access the corporate system without having to sign in to a separate VPN connection. Meanwhile Windows To Go allows Windows 8 to boot from an external flash drive - allowing staff to access their corporate OS from a personal device without having to copy corporate data onto its hard drive. The flash drive can also be encrypted with BitLocker to provide additional security. Managing the costs of remote workers will also be aided by built-in mobile broadband metering and native support for 3G and 4G.
Businesses will be able to develop their own Modern UI-style enterprise apps, which can then be centrally managed, updated and distributed by managers. Apps and any data they contain will be able to be kept within the corporate firewall. The ability of Live Tiles to display dynamic information allows for the creation of corporate apps that act as dashboards, for example displaying real-time feeds from enterprise systems.
Another feature that promises to make IT managers life easier is the integration of Microsoft’s HyperV client, its virtual machine manager, into the OS. The integrated HyperV feature, a Windows Server 2008 and 2012 compatible tool, should allow IT managers to run multiple configurations of virtual machines from a single device.

What versions are available?

When Windows 8 is released on 26 October it will come in three versions: two for Intel-based PCs, Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, and Windows 8 RT for ARM-based tablets like the Microsoft Surface.
Windows 8 is aimed at consumers, Windows 8 Pro is for tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals – adding features, mentioned above, related to encryption, virtualisation, PC management and domain connectivity.
Computers that shipped with Windows XP, Vista or 7 can be upgraded to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99. The offer is available until 31 January 2013, after which the price will rise. The price of upgrading to Windows 8 Pro falls further if you bought or buy a PC with Windows 7 between 2 June 2012 and 31 January 2013, dropping to $14.99.
The upgrade to Windows 8 Pro will be available as a download, with Windows Media Centre available as a free add-on. It is also possible to upgrade by buying a physical disc, although that option will cost $69.99, again a limited offer until 31 January 2013.
If you’re planning to build your own PC and install Windows 8 on it then OEM prices ahead of launch are $99.99 for Windows 8 and $139.99 for Windows 8 Pro.
The OS will be available in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide.

How easy is it to upgrade?

It varies, depending on what Microsoft OS you’re running now. Upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 keeps the programs, Windows settings and files; from Vista keeps the settings and files. Upgrading from Windows XP only keeps personal files. A Windows 8 upgrade assistant wizard guides users through the process.
While Microsoft says that upgrading from the preview versions of Windows 8 to the full version will require a clean install, there are workarounds involving modifying .ini files.

What apps does it come with?

Bundled Modern UI apps include those drawing on online content through Bing: such as Sport, Weather, Finance, Music, Video and games from Xbox; organisation apps: Mail, Calendar, Photos, Messaging, People and SkyDrive; as well as a variety of extras.

Does it include Microsoft Office?

Touch optimised versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote will be bundled with Windows RT but not with other Windows 8 SKUs, although these will be able to run legacy Office apps through the Windows Desktop.
Office 2013 has been redesigned to incorporate the same tiled interface as Windows 8, while retaining the ability to be used with a mouse and keyboard, and the code rewritten to work on ARM processors, as well as 32 and 64 bit Intel and AMD chips.

When will machines ship with Windows 8?

New Windows 8 PCs and Windows RT tablets will be available to buy from October. Launching at the same time as Windows 8 will be the RT version of Surface, a Windows 8 tablet designed by Microsoft that features a keyboard built into the cover. A version of Surface running Windows 8 Pro on an Intel Core processor will be released 90 days later.

Windows 8 touchscreen keyboard

So what are Windows 8’s chances? It sounds like it’s got a fighting chance

While analysts predict that Windows 8 will be a popular OS, there is expectation among many that demand will take a while to pick up. One of the key selling points for Windows 8 predicted by a Morgan Stanley analyst would be the ability to use popular Office programs like Word on a tablet.
However enterprise adoption could be slowed by the fact that most businesses are still deploying Windows 7. US companies told analyst house Gartner that Windows 7 would be running on about half of PCs by the end of last year. Given that many companies have either just upgraded or are in the process of upgrading to Windows 7 it seems unlikely that they will in any hurry to upgrade to Windows 8. If they put off their next OS upgrade for another four years, which is how long it typically takes for businesses to refresh their desktop OS, then businesses are likely to skip Windows 8 altogether, in favour of some future flavour of OS. As a result Gartner research director Annette Jump has predicted that the number of businesses deploying Windows 8 “will definitely be lower” than that of Windows 7.
CIOs were also sceptical about the business value of Windows 8 over Windows 7, when questioned by TechRepublic earlier this year.

What about the Modern UI, that looks pretty whizz bang

It does, but despite the praise that has been lavished onto the Modern UI in some quarters there are a few caveats. While the UI is credited with making Windows 8 a breeze to use once the users knows what they’re doing, learning how to use Modern UI may put some people off. People who’ve used preview builds have mentioned that new users of Windows 8 need schooling on how to use features like touching the edges of the screen to bring up interactive bars. It may sound harsh but not having an immediately accessible UI could cost Microsoft users when it is competing against the iPad and its highly intuitive iOS and the increasingly refined Android interface. There is also the risk that Windows 8’s attempts to support apps that work equally well across different devices and form factors will end up producing apps that don’t fully exploit the capabilities of any device.
Microsoft is certainly confident that people will like Windows 8 however, making a free consumer preview of the OS available to use until the final product is released.

Will its app store help its chances?

It is in the app space where Microsoft could face its biggest battle with Windows 8. By the time the OS launches it will be competing against an Android and iOS app base that has been built up over several years. It’s going to take something really special to make iPad or Android users give up the apps they know how to use and switch to a new platform.
By mid-October 2012 the Windows Store offered more than 5,550 apps globally, more than 4,850 of which were free. With more than 250,00 apps on the iPad App Store, Microsoft has some catching up to do.
Microsoft is trying to entice developers to produce apps for the Windows Store by offering an attractive revenue slice from sales. As an incentive to get users downloading Modern UI apps Microsoft made all apps on the store will be free until the end of the consumer preview period.

What will I need to run Windows 8?

Windows 8 will run on just about any recent 32 or 64-bit desktop or laptop, as well as running on modern ARM-based tablet computers. Microsoft recommends a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM (or 2GB for 64-bit), 20GB of hard disc space, and a DirectX 9 graphics card with WDDM 1.0 support.
One other important requirement is that Modern UI apps need a minimum of 1024×768 screen resolution and a 1366×768 to use the snap feature that allows apps to be run side by side.
Microsoft says that Windows 8 will support four common “system-on-a-chip” sets - the Nvidia Tegra 3, the Qualcomm Snapdragon, the Texas Instruments OMAP, and the Intel Atom Z2760

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