back to article Intel: Behold the TABLETS of our partners, proof of Win8's MIGHT

Windows 8 is ready, and to prove it Intel just listed PC chip partners who are putting Microsoft’s touchy operating system on its silicon. Yesterday, Chipzilla named nine OEMs that are building Windows 8 tablets and convertibles running its chips. Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Samsung and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh, no thanks.

    That is all.

  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Holmes

    This is all well and good BUT....

    what we all want to know is

    How Frigging Much?????

    When we has laughed ourselfves silly (if they want silly prices)

    Then we might just ask questions such as

    What is the quality of the screens VS existing tablets ????? (we don't want no 1366x768 crappiness cheapo screen than you Mr HP/Dell/etc etc)

    1. Big_Ted
      FAIL

      Re: This is all well and good BUT....

      From Stevie B's comment a week or so ago they will be priced at around the $400-500 dollar for RT (iPad competition) and ultrabook ie $800-1200 for the Pro versions (As stated by him weeks ago that they would be ultrabook prices). On top of that it looks like the keyboard cover will be another $199 on top from an article here a couple of weeks ago with an apparent leaked advert.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/17/ballmer_has_no_doubts_about_windows_8/

    2. Ramazan

      Re: This is all well and good BUT....

      When Microsoft enters a market, it always plans to destroy competition.

  3. Fuzz

    Battery life

    So what's the battery life like of the Atom tablets vs. the arm tablets?

    Also are the RT x86 tablets capable of installing software outside of the market?

    1. Mark .

      Re: Battery life

      http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/03/acer-iconia-w700-w510-windows-8/ describes x86 Windows 8 tablets, quoting "more than 8 hours" for a tablet, and 18 hours plugged into a keyboard dock (similar idea to the Asus Transformer). Suggests they are aiming for the same level of battery life.

      http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/windows-8-tablets-using-clover-trail-chips-have-a-10-hour-battery-and-three-week-standby-time-says-intel quotes 10 hour battery life for Clover Trail.

      Would also be interesting to see performance comparisons of ARM vs Atom, similarly for the GPUs - even today, it would be interesting to see what things are like for tablets vs netbooks.

      There is no "RT x86" Windows - x86 Windows is the full Windows 8, so you'll be able to run things from anywhere, just like a normal Windows PC.

      What isn't clear to me is what the plan is for x86 software that is built using their new "Windows Runtime" API - whether that must be distributed via Windows, or if that's only for the full-screen "Metro" applications, or not required at all. Anyone got a ref?

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: Battery life

        "What isn't clear to me is what the plan is for x86 software that is built using their new "Windows Runtime" API - whether that must be distributed via Windows, or if that's only for the full-screen "Metro" applications, or not required at all. Anyone got a ref?"

        I don't know the full answer to that, but if it is the case, then for "distributed via Windows" you can definitely read "distributed via MS, or your company or via your developer key". It doesn't change your question (and the developer scenario is irrelevant), but I think it's worth flagging up because so many here seem to take one sentence and run with it and if you write "must be distributed via Windows", some people will think enterprise users can't deploy their own in-house software without going via MS.

        I too would be interested in the answer to your question.

  4. Daz555

    The low power x86 chipsets make Windows RT a complete irrelevance imo.....unless they end up being far more expensive. I'm not interested in having i5 or i7 power in a Windows tablet, but I DO want x86.

  5. Spoonsinger

    I like cheese.

    It gives you interesting dreams. (It's an analogy - and doesn't in anyway degenerate other platforms before you ask).

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: I like cheese.

      I agree. But I think you meant "denigrate"

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19756734

    I still won't buy one, well..... maybe when Win9 comes out!

    1. h4rm0ny
      Thumb Up

      Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

      Wow! That's big news and a major win for AMD. Not sure MS will be very happy as it's a mixed blessing, but if this is accurate and it looks like it... Wow! Win8 comes out with a massive catalogue of Android Apps already for it. MS will be annoyed to see Win8 sullied by software that isn't really optimized for it. And Google will probably be horrified. But for existing users and developers... wow!

      Also, that article's photo is fantastic! :D

      1. Epobirs

        Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

        Go to the AMD AppZone section for Android on Windows and the reality is far less exciting. Most of the apps are simply useless. The good ones already have native Windows versions or web versions. The remainder are a bunch of generic games of the sort that exist in vast numbers already on Windows and aren't very usable on a non-touchscreen device.

        It's an interesting stunt but not much else.

    2. Mark .

      Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

      Typical BBC spin - the idea that Windows 8 doesn't have much software, and comparing simply by what's in the MS store, is ludicrous. It's true for ARM, but not x86 - and since the article is about AMD, it's not clear we're talking about the ARM version.

      Seriously - Windows, the dominant platform for software by far, but we have the BBC writing fruitcake nonsense like "Microsoft is working hard to convince developers to make apps for Windows 8"? This was probably written by a journalist who thinks "App" is short for Apple, and doesn't realise it means application, i.e., software...

      I have to laugh - years ago I criticised "app store counts" by pointing out it would be ludicrous to say that Windows didn't have much software simply because there isn't any in an "MS Store". I never realised we would end up with people actually making such a stupid claim.

      Anyhow, interesting article anyway - the bit about Android on Windows that is. This would be beneficial to both Windows and Android imo.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

        "This was probably written by a journalist who thinks "App" is short for Apple, and doesn't realise it means application, i.e., software..."

        I think you will find they mean Metro (or whatever its now called) apps. A big difference from the catalogue of old win32 stuff that keeps MS afloat.

      2. h4rm0ny

        Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

        Oh I agree with you. But don't dismiss the significance of people being able to bring all their Android apps onto their PC or Win8 tablet. That's a bit of a blinder by AMD, imo.

      3. Steve Knox
        WTF?

        Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

        "Microsoft is working hard to convince developers to make apps for Windows 8"? This was probably written by a journalist who thinks "App" is short for Apple...

        So you honestly believe that a journalist intended to write that Microsoft wants to convince developers to make apples for Windows?

      4. Monty Burns

        Re: BBC reporting that Android Apps will run on AMD Win8 devices

        "Typical BBC spin - the idea that Windows 8 doesn't have much software, and comparing simply by what's in the MS store, is ludicrous. It's true for ARM, but not x86 - and since the article is about AMD, it's not clear we're talking about the ARM version."

        Thats not what its talking about. The article is saying that people who have Angry Birds on a phone may well like to install the same version on desktop. I don't recall seeing anything relating to a comparison of available apps for each eco system.

        BUT..... i have a friend who is a BBC journalist and I (probably unfairly) give her loads of abuse about the inaccuracies and misleading BS they put out.

  7. Mike Moyle

    But the BIG question remains...

    ...Will any of the x86 tablets be Hackintosh-able?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: But the BIG question remains...

      Now that would be funny, running full blown mac os on an MS tablet...

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: But the BIG question remains...

        "Now that would be funny, running full blown mac os on an MS tablet..."

        Why not? People run Windows on Macs.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Question

    If a driver which has code dating back to win2k works fine with the added, unnecessary "startup" junk, various things that do stupid things like listening to keystroke, stylish (!) volume setting etc...

    Will they be recoded to go along with new win8?or they will just fire up latest visual studio and hit compile button?

    That is the real serious issue with x86. That junk will compile&run fine. On ARM, it won't.

  9. Rob G.
    Trollface

    Yay a device made for 8... Not

    Well this is a different look for a PC, but is it really what we want? It's probably going to be expensive, loaded with bugs and worst of all its running Windows 8. *Shudder* I for one think that Microsoft should delay 8 by six months and dust off some proper desktop UI code for the rest of us who haven't quite given up on the good old keyboard+mouse interface. Listen up Microsoft, the keyboard and mouse are the way that we have interfaced computers for many years, why just throw that away and alienate the users who actually know how a PC should work?

    Just remember folks,

    PCs =/= Tablets

    <3 Rob.

  10. Mikel
    Windows

    Windows 7 designed for touch

    This post is just a reminder that we had a big hoopla about Windows 7 being designed for touch from the ground up: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/touch but it didn't sell.

    And that there was a big hoopla about Windows tablets at CES 2010, and the outcome was so dire that PCWorld disappeared their own slideshow: http://www.pcworld.com/article/186361/tablets_dell_hp.html but the underlying article remains: http://www.pcworld.com/article/186281/dawn_of_the_tablet_pc_ces_2010_roundup.html but none of that sold well.

    And that Microsoft has been trying to sell tablets with Windows for 17 years with no success, with everybody they can get to build with their ware. For all involved it has been a money loser the whole time, including Microsoft. It has destroyed more relationships with customers than any other Microsoft product, except Vista and ME. Many billions have been burned on this fire.

    This dog won't hunt.

  11. Christian Berger

    It might attract the usual crowd

    There are some Microsoft Fanboys, the people who gladly write and even buy software written in VBA, the people who, when they are not writing VBA use OLE and DCOM and since then have used every new technology coming out. Such software products then require you to install everything from VBX to .net and Silverlight, as each one of those technologies has been shoehorned into the product.

    That's the market Microsoft will most likely get, however that's also the market they alienate by not supporting Win32 on ARM.

  12. Confuciousmobil
    Meh

    Not sure...

    I couldn't see the point of the iPad when it was released - now I know it is the greatest thing since the wheel.

    I can't see what market MS Surface devices are aiming for - hopefully I will be similarly surprised by the success of them.

  13. Lamb0
    Big Brother

    I ain't marchin ta that drum...

    Nah, not for me. The Windows Only Clover Trail kills it for me... and W(A)RT is barely more than Silverlight running on a one lung OS.

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