Microsoft Windows 7 News

Adobe Releases Flash 10.2 Beta
The Final Pre-WP7 Market Share Numbers are Published
From Windows8News : Is it time for Microsoft to Split Windows in Two again?

Posted: 05 Dec 2010 07:24 PM PST

I always pause for a moment before writing about other software on a site called “Windows 7 News,” but some third-party software is so ubiquitous that it may as well come pre-installed with the OS – Adobe’s Flash Player is one such program, and the company today released a beta of version 10.2 to the public.

Flash 10.1 was a significant improvement over earlier versions, adding support for hardware acceleration on modern GPUs with current drivers – this allowed relatively weak CPUs like Intel’s Atom processor to play high-definition Flash content, when paired with a compatible graphics processor.

Flash 10.2 takes this a step further, improving hardware acceleration to the point that “[Adobe has] seen laptops play smooth 1080p HD video with just over 0% CPU usage.” Other features include increased performance under IE9 (due mostly to support for that browser’s own GPU rendering features), text rendering enhancements, and the ability to play full-screen Flash content on one monitor while continuing to work with other programs on a second monitor.

Flash development has gotten much more interesting over the last year as Adobe fights to keep the technology dominant in the face of competition from HTML5 and Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin. Flash has also had to contend with high-profile criticism from Apple’s Steve Jobs, who says that the Flash plugin will never be supported on its popular mobile devices. Jobs claims that the plugin is crash-prone and that it decreases battery life – the latter accusation has been independently confirmed by reviewers, who noted that installing Flash significantly impacted the battery life of the new MacBook Air.

I wouldn’t say that I love Flash, but I think that version 10.1 went a long way toward correcting its problems and I hope that 10.2 continues this trend. Flash is installed on nearly all of the world’s computers, so anything Adobe can do to improve the performance and efficiency of the plugin will benefit the entire Internet.

Sources: Adobe, Wired

The Final Pre-WP7 Market Share Numbers are Published

Posted: 05 Dec 2010 06:45 AM PST

The mobile phone OS market figures have now been released for the final three months before the official launch of Microsoft’s new smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7. To be honest these figures are only as we should expect, with Apple up a bit, Google up a lot and Microsoft down (again).

Some might be surprised to see Blackberry maker RIM down by 3.5% but the company has been caught up in a great many legal wrangles in countries around the middle-east in the last year and has also failed to innovate on its platform. Palm’s drop of only 1% will come as a greater surprise to many given the abject failure that was the Pre.

comscore oct smartphone market The Final Pre WP7 Market Share Numbers are Published

Image from ComScore (click for link)

So far as Microsoft’s figures go it could be HTC who have been responsible for those numbers dropping much further. They’re Sense UI interface has not only made the final versions of Windows Mobile just about usable, but has also caused some confusion with people between Windows Mobile and Google Android as the same interface was splashed across both operating systems. This could also be the reason why Android’s market share isn’t up by more.

It will be interesting to see now how the market share changes in the next quarter, and more specifically the three after that as Microsoft’s new smartphone OS platform is picked up by consumers. At the moment take-up appears to be slow. This is probably because of the negative image consumers and businesses have about Microsoft and the Windows Mobile brand, but it could also be because people are more wary than they used to be about version 1.0 products.

Where it will be interesting to see what happens will be in which company Microsoft takes market share away from. Symbian isn’t even on the list and we can certain that the best efforts of Nokia and Sony Ericsson won’t be enough to keep it from its grave in 2011. Equally, Palm’s mobile OS figures now have nowhere to go but down and TIM, as I said earlier, are bound to continue to be hit by their lack of innovation.

Clearly that’s a large market share to be carved up between the three major players. How much of that Microsoft will be able to steal for themselves remains to be seen, but the very fact that so many devices already exist and on so many networks should have Apple worried that they could end up in the number three spot in a few short years.

From Windows8News : Is it time for Microsoft to Split Windows in Two again?

Posted: 05 Dec 2010 06:25 AM PST

Before Microsoft moved to the Windows Server / Windows XP platform there were two distinct Windows platforms that, while they shared the same code-base had separate development teams and separate aims.

For ten years now we’ve had a single platform and a single code base and the result has been impressive with the complaints about the Windows platform being buggy and insecure now gone and complaints instead aimed at third-party companies such as Adobe.

I’m wondering though if it isn’t time for Microsoft to skim a consumer focus for Windows 8 and future Windows development. Let me explain why.

Read the full article at Windows8News.