Well we are in silly season, windows 8 has been launched, so Microsoft will be doing its best to get the product out there. So should we run to Windows 8, or should we shy away. I don’t believe a operating system gets good until at least Service Pack 1 is released, but if you want to jump in with two feet, here is whats coming out.
So what kind of machines are out their
Dell have the following
http://www.dell.com/us/p/d/campaigns/windows-8-consumer
So dell are selling us flip hinges, touch screens
HP are doing more less the same
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/static/page-windows8
And PC world are selling everything Windows 8
http://www.pcworld.ie/aspx/Homepage.aspx
Prices seem to vary a lot, and the minimum requirements are low enough (below), but I expect this is bottom run of the lader, so you may have to spend to get good user experance.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/system-requirements
Windows 8 has been designed for touch, so all devices shoud have a touch screen to get the most out of it, but the question is was will physically work best.
Destops could be an intersting case in point, as holding you hand out and touching a screen while sittng down could get pretty tiring after a bit, anyone that has ever painted a wall will testify that its hard work. So will this compromise the path to least restance or in this case user adoption.
Or will the tablet take over as a the new input device. What has to change to make this happen ? …. well processors will have to get quicker, as the physical swich is hard to replicate in terms of speed and feedback. In terms of data entry, I’m touch typing here, and this could be the major down fall of a tablet, as in it will be very hard to give the “feeling” of typing (haptic feedback), Blackberry tried this before with the Blackberry Curve, but this didn’t go so well for them.