Software

The latest software for your notebook.


Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Variants

Windows 8 Variants - Standard, Pro, RT

Windows 8 editions: standard Windows 8, Pro, and RT.

Microsoft has officially announced Windows 8 editions for PCs and ARM devices.

When Windows 8 arrive on the market this fall, users of x86/64 PCs like Intel or AMD based laptops will have a choice of standard Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, both in 32- and 64-bit variants. The difference between the Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro is lack of some advanced networking, virtualization, and security features on the former.

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Windows 8 Beta vs Windows 7 on Laptop – Performance and Battery Life Benchmarks

Windows 8 and Windows 7 Logos

I tested last week computing performance and battery life under Windows 8 Beta (Consumer Preview) versus Windows 7 on a laptop PC. The notebook used for this purpose is a 15.6″ HP 630 with the Intel Pentium B950 CPU, Intel’s HD integrated graphics, 4GB RAM, a 320GB 5,400rpm hard drive, and 6-cell battery. It’s a typical full-size notebook with widely used processor and GPU.

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How to Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta From USB Flash Drive or DVD

This is a step by step guide on how to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta on a hard drive partition using a bootable USB Flash drive or DVD created using either ISO images or Win 8 Consumer Preview Setup. For this guide, we used a HP 630 laptop with a Pentium processor.

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Make Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta Installation Flash Drive or DVD via Setup

We have explained how to make a bootable Windows 8 beta USB Flash drive or DVD from an ISO file. Now, we will introduce a simpler and default method of creating Win 8 preview bootable media, required for installing the OS on a partition other than one you’re using now – via Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup.

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How to Make Bootable Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta USB Flash Drive or DVD From ISO Images

This is a step-by-step guide showing how to make a bootable Windows 8 Consumer Preview (beta) USB Flash drive or DVD using available ISO images.

Besides direct ISO image download, another option for getting Windows 8 beta up and running is via offered Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup, but we’ve chosen to do a guide for ISO images. Please note that Preview Setup is maybe a better choice for many users, because it will check your system for compatibility before downloading installation files and is easier to use because the whole process is done through a single wizard.

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Beta) Download

UPDATE: Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta Download is now live. You can get the OS now.

Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta

Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Beta Page (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download)

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List of MacBook (Air, Pro) OS X Mountain Lion Compatible Laptops Revealed

MacBook Pro Laptops

TUAW got a tip from an anonymous developer who revealed which MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro laptops are compatible and not compatible with upcoming OS X Mountain Lion.

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OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to Bring iOS Features to Macs This Summer

Apple released today a developer version of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, revealing new features of their upcoming operating system for Mac laptops and desktops.

OS X Mountain Lion brings to Apple’s computers many features found on iOS mobile OS and relies heavily on iCloud cloud service for storing data on iCloud servers and sharing them across different devices.

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Developer Windows 8 for ARM Coming in February

Windows 8 Screenshot

This is a Windows 8 Metro UI screenshot.

A developer pre-beta version of Windows 8 OS for laptops, tablets and desktops based on x86 architecture was released a couple of months ago. In February, Microsoft will also launch the first developer Win 8 version for ARM-based devices, accoring to CNet’s sources.

ARM-optimized Windows 8 is expected to have a significant role on the tablet computer market, since it will enable Windows to run on cheap and power efficient chipsets such as Nvidia Tegra. The tablet market is currently dominated by Apple’s iOS and Google Android and Windows is currently used only on tablets with x86 Intel and AMD chips, which at this stage have much greater power consumption than ARM parts.

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Acronis True Image Personal 2010 Backup App for Windows Free Today

Do you need a free backup software for your Windows laptop, tablet, or desktop PC? You can get a free copy of True Image Personal 2010 by a well-known sofware maker Acronis today only via Download Crew.

Acronis True Image Personal 2010

Acronis True Image Personal 2010

With Acronis’ application, you can manually backup your selected files or an entire HDD partition, or schedule an automatic backup. Restore can be done partially or you can do it for the whole partition, even if your Windows installation won’t boot.

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CTL MB40U 14.1″ Laptop Offers Ubuntu OS, Intel Core CPUs

The CTL MB40U is a new Intel Core i-based laptop which features Ubuntu Linux operating system instead of Windows.

The 14.1-inch MB40U comes with Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” 64-bit pre-installed, which includes with a wide range of free applications, including an office suite. The notebook is configurable with Core i processors ranging from i3-2330 to Core i7-2630QM. Customers can also choose 2 – 8GB of DDR3 memory, and up to 500GB of hard drive space or up to a 512GB solid state drive. There’s no info on optical drive in the specs sheet, but an ODD is present on the image of the MB40U. Intel’s HD integrated GPU is the only graphics choice.

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Sprint Launches AppUp, Gives Away Free Angry Birds and Trivia

Sprint became today the first U.S. mobile carrier offering Intel AppUp center to its customers and, for a limited time, those who install and register with the center via Sprint will receive a free copy of Angry Birds Rio and History Channel Trivia Challenge 2.0.

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Top Web Browsers Benchmarked on Laptop – Chrome Fastest

It this test, we did a performance benchmark of the most popular web browsers. We did the comparison on one of lower-end processors used in laptops, the AMD E-450.

On higher-end notebooks, the difference between web surfing speed using different browsers is much less noticeable than on the slower ones, especially netbooks. So, we conducted this test to show you how web browser selection can help you do web surfing more smooth on a lower-performance machine, such as those cheap AMD E-series based Black Friday laptops.

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Lemote Yeeloong 8101_B, 8089_B Netbooks Feature Chinese CPU, Linux

Today we spotted a pair of unique netbooks, the Lemote Yeeloong 8101_B and 8089_B, belonging to a quite unknown kind of netbooks. They don’t feature an Intel Atom or AMD Fusion processor, nor Windows OS and are not aimed at an average consumer. Instead, the geek-centric 10.1-inch Yeeloong 8101_B and and 8.9-inch 8089_B have the Loongson 2F China-made processor and GNU/Linux OS.

Loongson chips are based on MIPS architecture. The 2F runs at between 800 and 900MHz and is 64-bit compatible. It has a built-in video controller and a power consumption of 4W. It works in conjunction with DDR2 memory.

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Ubuntu 11.10 vs Windows 7 Starter on Netbook – Benchmarks

Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot”, the latest version of the most popular Linux distribution among laptop PC users, is now available.

There are many improvements in the new version, including changes in Ubuntu’s Unity interface and various bug fixes. The 11.10 includes new themes and login screen, new features such as Deja Dup backup application, ability to sync installed apps across multiple computers via OneConf feature, and newer kernel version. The default browser is Firefox 7. When it comes to email, Mozilla Thunderbird replaces Evolution client.

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