Windows 8 Pricing and Packaging Revealed, Pre-Order Now

 Windows 8 pricing has been unveiled by Microsoft, with online upgrades from $39.99, along with the rather fetching eco-friendly box art for those who still enjoy packaged versions of their software. 

Still Paying the Windows Tax?

Starting today, U.S. PC users will be able to pre-order their Windows 8 Upgrades on DVD for US$ 69.99. For those who don't need the disc, the online upgrade is available from $39.99 in a promotion that will last until the end of next January.  

For some reason there, are five different pieces of box art for the same Windows 8 Pro upgrade, but they are now made from all-paper materials to reduce production costs, greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce transport weight. 

Pre-orders for new Windows 8 PCs are also kicking off today from the likes of ASUS, Dell, HP, Samsung and Sony, among other partners. They'll all be keen for their new generation devices to go flying off the shelves.

While there is no "Full version" of the new OS to buy directly, the prices of Upgrade and OEM versions are appearing online at various retailers, for example New Egg is listing:

Windows 8 Professional Upgrade – $69.99 (saving $130)
Windows 8 Professional Pack – Product Key Card (no media) - $69.99 (saving $30)
Windows 8 (Full Version) – OEM Version $99.99
Windows 8 Pro (Full Version) – OEM Version $139.99

Windows Around the World

This comes hot on the heels of the news that Microsoft Office 2013 has gone gold and will soon be available, creating huge possibilities for those looking to upgrade their systems. Will Windows 8 be the massive event Microsoft is planning on? 

With the keen pricing and the huge amount of hype on the way, Windows 8 could well kick-start a new love affair with Windows for some. But, for the hundreds of millions of Windows 7 users, will all the slick new features and sexy hardware be enough to relaunch a floundering industry?

Pricing for other territories will be announced soon with global buyers hoping that there is minimal upswing in the conversion rates from dollars to their local currency. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

The Mobile Enterprise: Still a Ways to Go

“And the best part of my new corporate job is that I get a free iPad (or similar mobile device)!”

Like many of you, I’ve heard versions of this statement on an accelerating basis of-late. It begs the question: why are enterprises handing out mobile devices on such a regular basis to new, and oftentimes nearly all, of their employees?

There is also a land rush to allow employees to bring their own devices. This is the ultimate freebee for the enterprise, but for employees, this will start to cloud the area of “when am I at work or not?”

Getting off track a bit, a new Smartphone or tablet is a cool perk, but the optimist in me wants to believe that it’s also a way to encourage genuine collaboration and increased productivity within the enterprise. Whatever the use-case, it’s clear that the “mobile enterprise” is well upon us, so let’s take a look at some of the practical ramifications and use-cases:

The Road Warrior and UX

You know who you are — you might be in five airports this week alone and have a mix of bosses and employees in several countries. In theory, wouldn’t it be great to have an ultra-lightweight device that enables you to easily stay in contact and collaborate with all those co-workers, across the miles, let alone the new business opportunities you’re trying to close?

We’ve all seen the ads touting this potential, but is there a real-world UX priority to make this happen? The answer: sort of, but there’s a lot of work to be done. It seems that every company outside of Apple has recently gotten religion on design — consider how many times during the past couple of months we have heard this coming out of Redmond!

As within the broader enterprise landscape, employees can often access enterprise activity feeds and other “social lite” elements from their mobile devices and can obviously download documents via email or some cloud-based applications. But is genuine collaboration and document sharing really part of the mobile enterprise right now? Not quite, but I’m optimistic that we’ll be there soon. This is definitely worth watching and could be the basis for a whole series of articles.

As I’ve alluded before, secure document sharing is a critical step in enterprise collaboration and the stakes are pretty high. Beyond the convenience of being able to collaborate from any place, anytime, enterprises have be comfortable that their data — especially in verticals like finance and legal, where confidentiality is paramount and most likely regulated — is 100 percent secure and with zero exceptions. On the front end, mobile employees demand a UX that is easy and intuitive while not sacrificing confidentiality parameters so key to their businesses. We’re not there just yet, but stay tuned!

Is Always-on Always Good?

That really cool mobile device can also be a curse, especially for employees who might want to unplug for just a little while. I’ve heard of many instances in which a “Wow, look at this great device I got through my company,” quickly transforms into “Wow, I have my work/company with me 24/7 now.”

What can we, as an industry, do to mitigate this?

From a UX standpoint, as we build applications geared toward mobile enterprise collaboration, we should also empower employees to define what their work hours are on a given device — that is, actually use the device as a way to reinforce work/life balance. I know, it’s idealistic, but from a practical standpoint we’re already seeing this being done and I think this functionality can and should be built into any social collaboration solutions that involve the mobile enterprise.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Pinterest Evolves for the Mobile User with iPad and Android Versions

With the tablet market about to go into overdrive, Pinterest has updated its mobile apps to offer distinct iPad and Android versions, to cater for those shiny new media-rich screens.

Pinning Is Winning

With Pinterest's phenomenal growth, the service is making new users and friends at a huge rate. And, as the leading social concept for a female audience, it can look rather hectic judging by its front page. There's some fashion, fancy cakes, Orlando Bloom and much more going on. 

It starts to make more sense when you sign up and start posting, and it makes even more sense when you try it with a mobile, able to take your own pictures. But the apps have lagged behind the service's ambitions recently. But the new updates bring things firmly into focus. With a huge boost in tablet users coming, Pinterest is now ready to cater for even more users. 

For the iOS user, there is an all-new iPad app that makes it easy to pin, repin and browse the web, wheil the iPhone gets improved usability and improvements for better stability and performance. New users can also sign up from within the app, for an all-mobile experience. 

Pinterest debuts of Android
 

Android users get their first native Pinterest app which offers a world of discovery, collecting, and sharing of both information and inspiration. All of this as the service recently opened up for all, without the need for an invite. 

The Quest for Numbers

This drive is about Pinterest ramping up the numbers of users as quickly as possible, so that it gets to a state where it can introduce sufficient revenue from advertising or another avenue, look good for a possible acquisition, or perhaps even, one day, an IPO. 

To cater for the growing user base, Pinterest is adding new content categories all the time with weddings, tattoos and quotations the most recent additions. By growing users and the amount of content they can add, the slightly crazy world of Pinterest should continue to grow and endear its users (not something you can really say about Facebook now). 

Time will tell if this is the next big social media event, but for now things are looking pretty good and with huge numbers of tablet users about to appear, it could easily become one of the most popular apps as word spreads. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com