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Windows “Blue” to add 7 inch tablet support

Posted by In Microsoft, Windows 8 Tagged , , Comments 16

The Verge, who had earlier leaked some details about the next update to Windows 8 called "Blue” has now added some further information.

In a meandering article which suggests Microsoft drop the Windows brand Tom Warren notes:

"Windows Blue" (is)  an upgrade designed to improve compatibility with 7-inch and 8-inch devices

The news suggests Microsoft is not planning to leave the small tablet market, dominated by cheap Android tablets, uncontested, and may finally bring lower prices for Windows 8 tablets.

Would our readers pick up a small tablet, or do you think it compromises productivity too much? Let us know below.

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  • rsgx

    So, the debut of Blue will equal the debut of the 7″ MS ‘Surface’?

  • http://twitter.com/saqrkh Bilal Khan

    GIve me a Blue 7-8 inch tablet, NOW.

    • http://twitter.com/slbailey2 slbailey2

      I like the specs except for the cellular. I only need want WiFi.

  • dajunga

    I like it.

  • karhill

    I’ve been holding off on Windows tablet, waiting for a 7″ form factor (that must include both WIFI and GPS. It does NOT need cellular.)

  • http://twitter.com/slbailey2 slbailey2

    I really, really love to have a very slim and light 64gb or 128gb 8″ Windows 8 Pro tablet!!!!!

  • Pookiewood

    This is my sweet spot! It’s what I would like. I have a Playbook and the form factor is great. Give me a Playbook form factor running Windows RT.

  • Ryan T

    This is going to piss a lot of developers off if the resolution drops below 1136×768 with support for snap view.

  • Davey

    I don’t think an MS 7″ tablet will have the desktop at all. I reckon it will have the WINRT environment only. Purely aimed at consumption. Any productivity applications will have to come through the app marketplace and will have to run inside the WINRT environment.

    • NGM123

      Agreed, desktop not required on a small tablet-K.I.S.S.

  • NGM123

    I’d be all over an 8″ W8 tablet like white on rice. Currently have a Nexus 7 but can’t live with the constant lag issues anymore and will not buy the walled garden apple is again

  • http://voguishtech.com Wemberg Carlo Estil

    All this is wonderful news but windows 8/RT and phone needs a notification system.i hope Microsoft is reading thins because these are extremely useful in today’s technologies.

  • Windows 8

    I would love to that this news sees the light of the day :D it is bound to shake up the market if Blue is free and then the world would be biting its nails to see it flying.

  • Bobcat

    What I’d love to see is a Nook HD RT… which I suppose is a bit of a mouthful, but hey, a guy can dream. I love my Nook Tablet, but I’m 100% not a fan of the droid based OS.

  • Max

    There is a lot of other work to get done for Microsoft. Here is an open letter I wrote to them:

    Dear Microsoft,

    here are my thoughts how you should improve Windows 8.

    Windows 8 should be handeled like Windows Phone 7/Windows Phone 8, for example:

    - Push and hold/rightklick on an element should bring up a finger friendly context menu where the finger/cursor is

    - The tiles should be rearranged by push and hold, too

    - If there is a menu bar on the bottom or top, it should be indicated by a narrow, half transparent dark bar with three dots in the right corner (like on Windows Phone or even on Office 2013 RT)

    - It should be possible to choose a white or black background on the start screen

    - It should be possible to choose a main color for all tiles (on WP all tiles of build in apps have the same color)

    - Enable Voice control by holding down the windows button (even on keyboards)

    - When the users holds down the power button on a tablet, there should be the question if he wants to shut down the device, on notebooks/desktops this should be asked when simply pressing the power button

    - On the right corner oft the start screen should permanently be the “show all apps” button (like the little arrow on the WP 7 start screen)

    - Signal status, bluetooth, date and time, etc. should always be visible on the top of the start screen (like in WP)

    - Give the Windows 8 users also all three tile sizes

    - The differentiation of bottom menu and right-click/push-and-hold context menus should be the same like in WP. For example when you right-click on a tile on the start screen: It makes no sense that the context menu is shown on the bottom. It sould be nearby the finger/coursor, because it is faster and it is a more unified expirience with WP.

    Further improvements:

    - When Windows 8 detectes touch hardware, it should boot into the start screen, but when it doesn’t detect touch components, it should start to the desktop (users should be able to configurate that manually, too)

    - On the first start of Windows 8, there should be more than the hint of using the corners. There should be a quick demo of all the new gestures (this tutorial should always be accesable via a tile on the start screen)

    - On the boot screen should not only be the Windows/OEM logo, it should also show the name “Windows 8″ and the Microsoft logo. Many people don’t even know which Windows Version runs on there PC, neighter they know that Windows is a product from Microsoft. There are some people at my work, which think Office and Windows are the same type of software from two different companies…

    Same problem with other products: My girlfriend plays Xbox 360 almost every day since three years, but she never realised that it is from Microsoft – till I told here a month ago.

    - EVERY control panel option should also be availaible via touch

    - When a user opens something on the Desktop, than launch the file (if possible) with a desktop app, if he launches it out of the Metro/Modern/Windows 8-UI it should open with the dedicated app (the user should be able to change that). For example pictures: Why open them with the photo app out of the desktop Windows File Explorer? I know this can be changed, but when I’m on Modern-UI, I don’t want to use a Desktop Programm.

    - Use short names for all your services. Nobody likes long names (bad example: Windows Live Messenger). Your new design language should also have a final, easy to use name. Why don’t you call it “Modern-UI”. Thats short, everybody knows what modern means and it has a positive message in it – it’s perfect!

    - There needs to be a Modern-UI File Explorer

    - Windows TV commercials should be like short tutorials. The user should know how to use a new PC, when he gets one. So many people uses PCs for over 10 years and don’t know that they can select more files at once, when they klick and hold the left mouse button – I could not belive my eyes but it’s true!

    You could teach the people with easy step-by-step instructions, which are repeated day-by-day in TV. That would be a computer school for the masses!

    ***

    Just think about that: You are a normal user. You hate new technical things, you are much more interested in sports, family, etc. When you simply buy a new TV you have to read the instructions to get it work. You would never have the idea to change picture settings on your TV. You don’t know what HD means, but you heard it is something good. You don’t know what a opperating system is – and you don’t want to know it. When you buy a new computer it does not get unboxed untill weekend, because for you it is not fun – it’s hard work to get this thing running. Every minute you have to spend with it is a lost minute, because you have much better things to get done.

    BUT you need a device to surf the web and write some E-Mails, perhaps write some letters…

    Which tablet would you buy as such a normal user? A Android Tablet, which handling you have to learn – or a Windows Tablet, which you already know how to handle, because of the TV commercials you have seen every evening of the last weeks?

    Work with hints:

    - When a app launches there should be the top and bottom menu visible for a second or two – then let them disappear till there are only two narrow, nearly transparent dark bars with the three dots visible

    - The first few times when a new user launches some apps, quickly show the left App Switcher (perhaps let it jump like the lock screen jumps on WP, but from left to right, not from the bottom to the top, of course). When the user used the App switcher for the first time, turn this animation off.

    - When a user often launches an app out of the “all apps list” or from the search results, than show him a hint how to pin it to the start screen

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Maria-Mari/100002652805740 Maria Mari

    i think Microsoft will make new tablets called xbox tables under wndows blue
    im not sure but its what i ve read here http://www.windowsbleu.com/2013/01/windows-blue-tablets-some-news.html