Amazon UK leaks Windows 8 retail box, TV ads
Windows 8 isn't due to launch until October 26, but some over-zealous retailers are starting to give us a feel for the marketing onslaught we can expect once Microsoft's new OS hits retail shelves. Officially, most retailers are still being coy about anything related to Windows 8. For example, searches on Amazon's US site reveal …
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The box makes it look like I'm entering the Twilight Zone!
@James Gibbons: "The box..."
It comes in a box? How quaint!
Bling bling bling
The design is made to dazzle you into buying a mediocre product.
Exactly
The Window 8 box is boxy and shit. Just like the UI!
im going to rush out and get it on release day
we're talking about the latest linux release, right?
Re: im going to rush out and get it on release day
No, you just yum update
Express, Connect, Create, Play...
But will it Work, or even Sell?
Re: Express, Connect, Create, Play...
But will it blend?
There, corrected it for you.
A few days early
But a trick for sure.
The box?
Did they get Lady Gaga or Bieber to barf on the box?
Re: A few days early
Must have been a Unicorn (or possibly a carebear) Surely!
everyone knows that they puke rainbows.
Upgrade Edition
That always sends a shudder down my spine.
WOW
That box looks like some poncy arty farty book about interior designing that contains 200 pages that tell you to chuck everything out apart from a wooden plant in a single vase in the corner of the room, which given the experience with the Windows 8 preview and release candidate is very apt. Talk about on the money
shades of Apple
I didn't want to be the one to say it. That grey background with the Segoe white text reminds me of the iTunes CD that used to come with every iPod. The sharp lines and bold colours of the graphics are Applesque too. Someone please tell Microsoft they're copying wrong, style over substance only works if you have style to begin with. I'm talking mainly about the slick Apple marketing machine, of course.
Tweaking Windows 7 and slapping a new theme on it doesn't really qualify as reimagining Windows.
This could be why they have a $40 download upgrade - in the fashion of Lion > Mountain Lion.
It also probably goes some way towards explaining all the focus on touch devices too.
I like Windows 7 on my PC, I ran Lion for 4 months and Snow Lion for 2 but I just couldn't deal with the Mac way of multi tasking. I can't help feel that MS should stop trying to emulate Apple, stick to what they know and instead try to out innovate them. I believe they have the resources to do it.
Re: shades of Apple
who cares, nobody is going to pay a kidney for a tablet with this crap on
Re: shades of Apple
Apple did not invent minimalist graphic design, it's an established style that has made a bit of a resurgence in recent years.
For some modern examples that are neither the work of Apple or Microsoft have a look at the link below:
http://www.noupe.com/design/immortal-technique-a-quick-look-at-minimalism.html
If you want to go back the beginning and see where MS are getting a lot of their inspiration for Metro (or whatever it's called) have a look at the work of Mondrian.
Re: shades of crack dealer
"This could be why they have a $40 download upgrade - in the fashion of Lion > Mountain Lion."
It's more "the 1st hit's free" thinking. You're supposed to pour a steady torrent of pennies directly into MS pockets via the new app store and they need to grow that herd of customers fast.
And let's face it, the only people buying Win8 otherwise will be getting it for even less bundled with new PC's. That's the downside of a monopoly, eventually you might own all the customers but they already own your product and don't need another copy!
Choking on your own vomit...
...is the biggest problem with Windows 8.
Re: Choking on your own vomit...
Just installed the W8 Enterprise trial. The setup screen is like an LSD trip of bright colors. WTF man, they need to take way the all you can eat pills buffet from the designers.
Boring...
But this just reminded me to delete that partition I set up to test it with, and get that 200GB back. I'm done with it for good, I hope!
So I don't care, what it looks like, I'm not buying it, nor is anyone I know. I quite easily avoided Vista, so I'll stay clear of this too. Well the latter is not quite true, they shipped it with my wife's laptop, and we poured curry all over it and it was all fine again, sorry, I meant installed Windows 7 and all was fine.
gaming...
The box looks ok. Heck, windows 8 is fine except for the obvious route it forces you down on the desktop.
Not really a problem, the preview builds had workarounds within weeks.
For me, it'll be all about the benchmarks for gaming - if there's a significant improvement, it'll be worth looking at.
Perhaps windows 8 could become the ultimate gaming platform?
In the interim, I await with interest to see what will come of Gabe Newells mutterings about steam on Linux.
Like many, I've been waiting for a significant development investment on that front for a decade - I suspect the wait will never be over.
It's a numbers game - windows 8 won't fail. It certainly won't set the world on fire, but with Microsofts lucrative OEM tie-ins and manufacturers clamouring for anything to lift the bottom line of sagging hardware sales, it'll creep, rather slowly, into millions of homes.
Slowly, because in hard economic times, not many people are going to buy new computers - and lets face it, that's why most people end up with windows.
Tablets and mobiles? Who knows how successful they will be. It's a tough market and Microsoft are so late off the starting gate, you have to question if they can catch up.
Re: gaming...
"Microsoft are so late off the starting gate"
As it happens they weren't. They had a good market share a few years ago, with Win CE. Then Apple came along and ate much of their lunch, and Android feasted on the rest. In panic, MS released WinPho 7 which failed.. WinPho 8 is just another doomed attempt, which will fail for the same reasons WinPho7 failed. Rubbish UI: no one wants this fugy stuff on their phones.
itles like "Meet Windows 8," "Make It Yours," "Work Hard, Play Hard," and "It's All About Apps."
ugh.... I wonder if rampant use of cliches is actually a good way to sell software of if Microsoft just get away with it because they're too big to fail.
It's all about apps yo, check it.
No thanks.
Actually I like the styling of the box...
...it looks very suave.
Pity about the contents.
Paris: well, after comments about a nice box she's the only choice (unless you like penguins)!!
bunch of old men
What are Microsoft supposed to do, tweek win 7 again and hope for the best? they have to differentiate, and putting their OS in the space where the others say it can't work (touch vs desktop combined OS) is bold and I honestly think they've come up with the best effort anyone could make at it.
The touch/mouse is pervasive, not bolt-on pop up keyboards like other touch attempts on windows. It isn't half bad at all on keyboard mouse. even better I expect if I had a gesture mouse, or a keyboard with charms on it.
I suppose the GUI is the big news, but what about the other stuff?
Enterprise only: AppLocker, BranchCache, DirectAccess, Windows To Go
BitLocker improvements, Client Hyper-V, eDrive.
This'll work, I really think it will. it doesn't look like the old Microsoft.
Re: bunch of old men
I agree that all of the Enterprise tools are a definate plus BUT why oh why can't they also allow us to the option of the existing Start Menu.
TIFKAM is the only thing that I don't like about W8, everything else appears to be fine ( Well almost).
If they're going to make us want it..
... they're going to need to hire some better turd-polishers than those which made that video.
Seriously, "you can switch between apps", and "snap two apps side by side" are features worth mentioning in your product video, basic features that have been around since the very first incarnation of Windows. People are familiar with ways to change between software applications, and maybe if they're advanced, they know the tile feature that's been there for over a decade, or aero snap, which is highly convenient and already there.
Really, it should say "cynical closed system OS (for app store revenue) with touchscreen junk bolted on top of your desktop"
Re: If they're going to make us want it..
Nobody is going to make you want it. You've obviously already decided. How about you go look at some news articles for products you actually like?
Oh, and the advert is obviously showing off WinRT features which a WinRT tablet might use, so really your second paragraph is pointless. The iPad sure as hell can't show you 2 apps on screen simultaneously. Glorified smartphone or slimmed down Desktop OS? I know which one I would choose.
Stop
For gods sake stop talking about the product!
It's the box that will get it off the shelf, and to the check out every time. Just ask my wife.
No thanks
I switched my neighbours to Linux. Uptime > three years with no tech support from me..
These are people who have only recently got the hang of copy/paste.
Try doing that with Windows 8
Re: No thanks
"These are people who have only recently got the hang of copy/paste."
Not surprised, you are so mean. If you had installed Windows 7 they would have been zipping around the net by now, on-line shopping, designing websites.
Re: No thanks
Jesus, I wouldn't be calling my neighbour for tech support if I was IT illiterate and they installed Linux on my machine. Which one of the many installed file explorers did you show them how to copy/paste on? God knows what they would do next....probably try and replace my Freeview box with a Linux HTPC. Because it's like, open source and stuff.
And just to make a point, I don't hate Linux, it's just not that simple an OS.
Re: No thanks
"Uptime > three years".
Are your neighbours not allowed to switch off their PCs then?
Re: No thanks
As a long time Linux user: I don't believe you. Unless:
They haven't upgraded in any way.
This "uptime" only consists of when the machine is switched on.
Also, if they have only just found out about cut'n'paste, I seriously doubt they've been particularly taxing the OS.
Linux can be very stable, but when it goes flakey, it really goes flakey. My previously totally stable, rock solid, mythbuntu frontend was upgraded to the latest release a few weeks ago, I've given up on the wireless as it's so broken and the fix for 1366x768 resolution is best described as "jury rigged".
No Start Menu = No Purchase
Until there is a Start menu and a way to disable the stupid tiled home screen I aint buying it, regardless of if it boots faster than windows 7 or adds a few extra features.
I will stick to Windows 7 with it's easy to use start menu and 20 second boot time Raided SSD's FTW!!!!
"windows reimagined"?
"windows reimagined"? Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Besides the marketroid horrorspeak, there's only one thing worse than windows, and that's windows "reimagined". I'll stick to Linux Mint. speed, fast and stays fast, security, intuitive and informative UI that stays out of your way yet does not hide stuff, no ribbons, reliability a sane install system, an open system, decent commandline which helps me do my power-user style job, and sanity!
Re: "windows reimagined"?
It could be worse. It could have "Leverage" in the text somewhere. Perhaps someone in the MS marketing department has "misspoke".
I cannot wait…
...for Windows 8 to come out and fall flat on its ugly face. So I purchased a Lenovo X1 Carbon now, before I have to start searching for downgrade options. At least the box represents what is inside, sht.
Who wants to come to my Windows 8 launch party?
It'll be fun.
Re: Who wants to come to my Windows 8 launch party?
Invite me please. The last one was great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cX4t5-YpHQ
Re: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cX4t5-YpHQ
How do those 4 sleep at night?
Watching that video hurt my feelings.
the orientation video says i should end with a great resource: windows.com/help
Re: Who wants to come to my Windows 8 launch party?
Oh GOD...my MIND BLEACH had just scrubbed that from inside my head. Thanks....i'll be back after i've been to therapy...AGAIN
/Happy mac user
Such hatred!
You'd think Emmanuel Goldstein designed the box based on the comments here.
What is in the box?
Probably lots of air and a DVD (it needs a bunch of space!). Now if you can get the money back if you don't want W8 on your brand new laptop that would be a real deal.
Then again, is there an upgrade from W98se? Why not??
Non-news
This ad was shown already in Surface release, so nothing new.
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