Video giving a glimpse of what's to come in Windows 8

Microsoft released a video giving a glimpse of what's to come in Windows 8. The presentation shows off an extraordinary amount of touch screen integration and a user interface that's a blend of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live.

It seems like only yesterday that Microsoft was sending out betas for Windows 7, however here we are with a sneak peek at Windows 8, which, according to Microsoft's first "Building Windows 8" video, is going to go tile-based or rather than icon-based, until further notice for tablets and mobile devices. This will, clearly, go hand in hand with touch-screen functionality that mirrors what we've come to expect from modern smartphones like the iPhone 4, the Samsung Galaxy, and others. According to the video, the proposed start screen won't be the icon-based desktop we all know and use, yet rather, a big clump of tiles in the middle of the screen, which are presumably intended to work best with touch-screen setups. I understand that "mobile computing" is something that has increased exponentially in recent years and that Apple's iPhone hardware has deep down been a bottomless pot of gold for that company. What I'm less excited about is the seeming opportunity that Microsoft is more interested in touch-screen interfaces and less so in keyboard-and-mouse interfaces.

I realize it's way too early to start freaking out here, however as someone who has preferred to play with a keyboard and mouse for many, many years, I have to say I'm a bit concerned if this early demonstration means that Microsoft will try to distance traditional mice and keyboards from future iterations of Windows. I word for word cringed during watching the video when the touch-screen keyboard was used--I play my games on the PC to avoid having to hunt and peck of the same type. Aside from the obvious implications for hardware manufacturers that make gaming mice and keyboards like Razer and Logitech, I'm just not liking the opportunity that mice and keyboards might become second-class citizens for Windows PCs. Clearly, mice and keyboards aren't going anywhere in the nearly future--everyone on the planet uses them for important work-related applications--yet longer-term, I have to say, I don't like the idea of giving up on my mice and keyboards for PC games just but...for the moment, not until a much better alternative arises. That's my two cents, by all means.

Case might be misplaced

Andrew's fear of change in such a case might be misplaced. It's not so much that Microsoft is giving the proverbial finger to the keyboard and mouse at this stage enhancing it. Those two devices are incredibly powerful in terms of accuracy and speed, however they're inappropriate for tablets and smartphones.

If we look just a little bit into the future, the Windows 8 demo signals a step in the right direction for Microsoft. The world is marching toward operating systems that need to be accessible through a variety of input devices, be they fingers, mice, or keyboards. For the time being, all of these methods reside in discrete areas. Fingers get used on smartphones, and mice and keyboards stick to laptops and desktops. This works fine if all of these devices never need to interact and stick to their specialties. However we're getting close to an inflection point, one at which these disparate devices might just merge completely.

The Motorola Atrix 4G

If you haven't seen the Motorola Atrix 4G, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's a smartphone and portable laptop slapped into one. The phone itself is powerful, however when plugged into the dock, it converts into a or rather robust platform. The execution and price points are questionable, yet the direction is undeniably sound.

Smartphone processors are set to increase in speed tremendously over the then and there five years, think orders of magnitudes more powerful. Their persistent data connections as well remove the limit of paltry onboard storage when connected to the cloud. There's as well nothing stopping manufacturers from popping a 500GB drive into a dock. The seamless merger of desktop and smartphone operating systems becomes a powerful selling point. Why buy two computing devices when one does the job? External monitors, keyboards, and mice fill in the gaps when you need to get accuracy and brute typing speed. On the go, the smartphone lets you carry everything you need without adding an extra pound of weight.

All of this convergence gets pretty cool when it comes to gaming as so then. A single computing device allows for desktop and on-the-go gaming together, all without losing where you are in the game. This all depends on how developers take advantage of the platform, and some genres by all means won't transfer then. Nevertheless imagine starting your gaming session on a game like Osmos or Castle Crashers at home, only to continue on a bus a moment later. Interesting times, they are a coming.

The dumbing down of PCs now

The dumbing down of PCs now. Oh joy. What a gift Apple has given to the world, forcing PCs to follow your path of mediocrity. It has made everything more user friendly and along these lines more bland, more constrictive, and less open. Get ready to never to tell the truth own anything ever again. Wanna buy a song? So then, the rights to listen to a song all the same. Wanna play a game? Just stream it from a cloud! Doesn't that sound better than really having a product with a tangible value? OnLive thinks so! The future is here. The future where you own nothing and borrow everything for fees. I've always wondered what it would be that made me abandon gaming afterwards almost 3 decades of being an avid gamer. Not owning the games I play will be the start. When handheld smartphone devices that are coupled with docking stations are the dominant platform, that will be the end. PC gamers: you think consoles hold back games now? Just you wait. Wait until when smart phones that plug into docking stations become the dominant gaming platform. At the time games will in point of fact be held back. No matter how you slice it, Cutting edge HW techs start bigger and are shrunk afterwards years of development. Smart phones will clearly get faster, duh, however they will never have cutting edge techs. It is just wrong side out thinking to assume they will. The future of dumbed down techs and non ownership sounds like a lousy one to me.

i as a matter of fact don't like touch keyboards. having to reach the screen to type anything aside from what's already on your lap is stupid, and even at the time it takes up a lot of screen space.other than that, i'm all for touch innovation.