Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

Figure 1-7:Netbooks can’t run Metro-style apps.

You won’t see Windows RT-based netbooks. These machines have come and gone.

Most people understand the basic concept behind a laptop: It’s a portable computer with a clamshell case design in which the laptop lid can be closed over the keyboard for easy portability. An Ultrabook is simply a modern take on the laptop, but with some rules. First, Ultrabooks are much thinner and lighter than traditional laptops and are thus much easier to carry around. Second, Ultrabooks feature the latest Intel CPUs and chipsets, which are designed to perform well and offer excellent battery life. Third, Ultrabooks must obtain at least five hours of battery life, which is decent, though most offer more. And they must offer USB 3.0-based connectivity (which we discuss later in the chapter).

A typical Ultrabook is shown in Figure 1-8.

Figure 1-8:Beauty and brains: Ultrabooks have it all.

There’s a final, unofficial requirement of Ultrabooks, and it’s perhaps the best of them all. Ultrabooks generally cost less than $1,000, and many cost closer to $650. (On the flip side, some high-end Ultrabooks cost almost as much as low-end Mac laptops. Almost.)

Speaking of Macs, the Ultrabook design was clearly based on Apple’s trendsetting MacBook Air line. And not surprisingly, many of the first generation Ultrabooks—which appeared in the year before Windows 8’s release—looked an awful lot like the Apple entry, albeit it while costing hundreds of dollars less. You can expect more innovative and unique designs to appear in the coming years as PC makers become more familiar with this type of device.

Ultrabooks are available in both Intel-compatible and ARM-based designs, but the Intel underpinnings are far more common.

We assume most people have seen an iPad, and given that device’s popularity, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft and its PC maker partners have raced to create both an operating system, Windows 8/RT, and a wide variety of multi-touch-based tablet devices that can blow the iPad’s doors off.

The nice thing about Windows 8/RT-based tablets is the variety. You have numerous machines to choose from, on both the Intel-compatible and ARM sides of the fence, and they come in a variety of sizes, with screens that range from 7 inches on up. A standard slate-style tablet can be seen in Figure 1-9.

Figure 1-9:The looks of an iPad but the power of a PC

Tablets are also not limited by their form factor. Many can be docked and easily expanded with an external screen, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals, becoming, in effect, a full-fledged PC in the process. In this usage scenario, a tablet can work much like an iPad while you’re out and about, accessed solely through its multi-touch capabilities. But when you get home—or to work—and dock the device, you have a real PC (Figure 1-10).

Figure 1-10:A docked tablet can function as a desktop computer by adding a keyboard and mouse.

The tablet market is pretty evenly split between ARM- and Intel-compatible designs, and many of both types are available. This is the one type of PC where ARM-based products may eventually outsell the entrenched Intel juggernaut. In fact, Microsoft is betting pretty heavily on this market and is releasing its own Windows RT-based tablet device, called Surface, and a Windows 8-based tablet PC, called Surface Pro. Both look almost identical, and resemble the device shown in Figure 1-11. But the Intel-based PC version is more powerful and a bit thicker and heavier.

Figure 1-11:Microsoft Surface RT

Ultrabooks are obviously a huge improvement over traditional laptops but they suffer a bit when compared to tablets in certain situations. For example, Ultrabooks aren’t as personal as tablets and aren’t as easily used in casual situations, such as when you are sitting in bed. Fortunately, PC makers have created a range of hybrid devices that bridge this gap, offering the best of both product lines.

The most basic of such hybrid PCs dates back to Microsoft’s first foray into Tablet PC computing in the early 2000s. This type of machine, called a convertible laptop, is essentially a laptop or Ultrabook computer in which the screen is permanently attached on a swivel. So you can use a convertible laptop like a regular laptop or Ultrabook, or you can flip the screen around and lock it over the keyboard, creating a somewhat thick tablet device in the process.

A convertible laptop like the one shown in Figure 1-12 is ideal for those who usually need a full-fledged laptop but would occasionally like to use the device in tablet mode.

Figure 1-12:A hybrid laptop lets you use the machine as a laptop or a tablet.

Slate hybrids are essentially tablets that can accommodate a clip-on keyboard base, sometimes with an extra battery under the keyboard to provide better off-power run time. This design essentially reverses the convertible laptop usage pattern and is best used by those who will use the PC in tablet mode primarily but sometimes need to type as well.

You will find both Intel-compatible and ARM-based hybrid PCs of all kinds.

Once you’ve determined whether to stick with an Intel-compatible machine or switch to an ARM-based device, chosen the Windows version you need, and picked out the type of PC or device that suits your fancy, there’s one more area of concern. And it concerns new hardware capabilities, some of which won’t be available on certain PCs or devices.

With each new Windows release, Microsoft supports a wider range of hardware devices and peripherals, of course. But with Windows 8 and the new portable scenarios that are opened up by tablets, Ultrabooks, and hybrids, the possibilities have expanded dramatically. And many of these possibilities are tied directly to new hardware capabilities that you should be aware of.

Here are some of the more relevant new hardware capabilities you should consider.

While Windows has offered pervasive multi-touch support since Windows Vista, the release of Windows 8 has changed things pretty dramatically. Instead of simply tacking multi-touch support on top of Windows as was done in previous releases, Windows 8 has been re-architected so that multi-touch is a full-fledged input type, alongside the mouse and keyboard. And in the new Metro environment, multi-touch is arguably even better supported than is mouse and keyboard. It is, as Microsoft puts it, a touch-first environment.

We discuss multi-touch throughout this book, but it’s important to know that multi-touch isn’t just relegated to tablets. In fact, once you start using Windows 8 via multi-touch, you’re going to expect this capability on all of your PCs. And not surprisingly, multi-touch devices of all kinds have come to market alongside Windows 8, including touch-capable displays that can attach to desktop computers, and touch-based Ultrabooks, hybrid PCs, and even all-in-ones.