Paul's Picks: Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows Phone "Tango"

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

PROS: Nearly feature-complete look at Microsoft’s next OS; fun and colorful Metro apps; some useful desktop improvements

CONS: Dueling UIs could be confusing for users; Metro makes for sense for touch devices, which are currently rare

RATING: Four out of five stars

RECOMMENDATION: Windows 8 is the single biggest change that Microsoft has ever made to its flagship Windows OS, and yes, I'm including Windows 95 and NT. It has abrand new runtime engine, new user experience environment, new APIs and SDKs for developers, and a weird dual UI that puts the old desktop on the PCright next to the new stuff. It’s beautiful, bizarre, and, frankly, kind of a mess. If you’re an IT pro worried about how this is going to affect yourenvironment—well, you should be. Windows 8 positions Windows for an iPad-like future of simpler, touch-based computing. It's superior—technically, andfrom a usability perspective—to Apple’s Fisher Price-like offering. Where the iPad is just a big iPod touch, a Windows 8 tablet has the opportunity tobe a prettier device that's infinitely more manageable.

CONTACT:Microsoft

DISCUSSION:SuperSite for Windows: "Windows 8"

Windows Phone “Tango”

PROS:Extends Windows Phone to higher volume, lower-cost markets

CONS:Confuses an already confusing product line in which carriers often ignore Microsoft’s updates, leaving users stranded

RATING:Two out of five stars

RECOMMENDATION: Microsoft has been tight-lipped about Tango, a release—or more accurately, set of releases—that will extend the platform’s reach into numerous newhigh-volume and low-cost markets, including China. Tango is a rejiggering of Windows Phone’s ability to handle on-phone resources, especially RAM—theminimum is now 256MB on new low-end devices—but also such things as background processes. Developers will need to hand-tune their apps to work properlywith new Tango-based phones, and users might run into the occasional app in the Windows Phone Marketplace that simply won’t work. For those withexisting devices, Tango will be a more evolutionary update with few functional improvements—and, no, it won’t impede your phone’s ability to use itsmore full-featured resources—and bug fixes. Maybe some carriers might even roll it out.

CONTACT:Microsoft

DISCUSSION:SuperSite for Windows: "Microsoft Quietly Explains Windows Phone 'Tango'"