Windows 8 - Everything We Know

Just when most people are getting used to Windows 7, it's already time to start looking ahead to Windows 8, scheduled to be release in summer or autumn of 2012.  There's already a lot of information available, both from Microsoft and some enterprising leakers.  Here's a round-up of what looks to be in store for Windows 8:

Improved Interface
Aero will continue to be an interface to Windows 8, but it will be joined by "Immersive", which includes elements of the "Metro" GUI beloved by Windows Phone 7 fans:

Live Mesh Beta Brushoff - Microsoft shoots itself in the foot, again.

Microsoft reinforced renewed doubt about the safety of data in cloud-based services, while squandering the opportunity to promote themselves as a competent cloud service provider.  When following a site or service from the beginning, we enjoy a veteran status, good username, or some form of loyalty reward.  I just participated in the beta of Microsoft's Live Mesh for over a year.  You would think that when they offer the next iteration of the service, they would send an e-mail about the new features.  Instead they sent this e-mail:

"Dear Live Mesh beta participant,

You're receiving this message because you used the Live Mesh beta from Microsoft. On March 31, 2011, the beta of Live Mesh will end, and the Live Mesh beta will stop working. After March 31, you won't be able to access any files stored online in your Live Desktop or connect to your PCs remotely using the Live Mesh software. Microsoft will not be able to help you retrieve any files you have stored online after this date. Your files will also stop syncing between your computers and your Live Mesh online storage. Please read below for actions we recommend you take.

With the new release of Windows Live services, we've made a series of changes and improvements across the products. We realize they will have an impact on you and we want to make that as easy as possible for you. We thank you for your continued support of Windows Live services.

Why is this happening?

To deliver a better product for all our customers, we combined several services into a new product called Windows Live Mesh. Windows Live Mesh has several performance and reliability improvements compared to the Live Mesh beta, and with Windows Live Mesh, you can also sync your program settings for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. Learn more.

What you need to do before Live Mesh beta shuts down

To prevent loss of any of your files, please sync all files from your Live Desktop so that you have them on your computer when the Live Mesh beta service is shutdown. To do this, follow these steps:

1.       On your Live Desktop, right-click any Live Mesh folders not yet synced with your computer, and then click Sync with this computer. Make sure all the folders on your Live Desktop have desktop shortcuts.

2.       Select where you want each folder to sync, and then click OK. If a folder has a lot of files, this might take a while. Open each folder and make sure all the files are downloaded.

What you can do moving forward

If you enjoyed the functionality of Live Mesh, we encourage you to install the new Windows Live Mesh. You will first need to uninstall the Live Mesh beta, and then go to http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh to get the latest version of Windows Live Mesh. Before you do this, note the folders that you're syncing on each computer and if they're shared with anyone. After you download Windows Live Mesh, you can set up these folders to sync again. Learn more about how to upgrade

Thank you for participating in the Live Mesh beta. We hope you choose to move to Windows Live Mesh.

Sincerely,

The Windows Live team"

Really?  How bout this - "Thanks for assisting in our beta - welcome to the release!".  Instead, Redmond serves up "let's put a barrier between a community of veteran users and the relaunch", along with a side of "by the way, in one month, we're going to delete your data (or at least remove your access to it).  Epic Marketing, Brand and Service Fail.  Live Mesh is actually great - but obvisously Microsoft will find a way to kill it.  Microsoft is asking us to follow them "to the Cloud!".  Ending a service and endangering people's data is no way to promote Cloud Computing or clients' trust of storing data on hosted web servers beyond our control.

Wow, one day with a Mac and I am already bashing Microsoft.

OneNote for the iPhone and iPad at Last!

If there is one application I can't live without, it's Microsoft OneNote.  I started using it on the Tablet PC, and it has become a central repository for my meeting notes, to-do lists, reference materials, and any other information that I want to collect.  The search functions make it easy to find things, and the tagging system allows tasks to be categorized and associated with events in Outlook.  Everything was great in OneNote Land until I got my iPad.

There is no more natural application for the iPad than OneNote, and for my first couple of weeks with the iPad, I looked everywhere for a substitute.  While a lot of people love EverNote, the interface just didn't click with me.  MobileNoter allowed the viewing of OneNote content, but entry and syncing just wasn't there the way I wanted it.  A couple of weeks ago, with no warning, Microsoft released this app and I found my prayers answered.

OneNote for IOS is mainly a OneNote viewer, but you can create new notes and to-do lists, update existing ones and organize your notebooks on Windows Live.  Some new features have been added - you can add pictures from your camera roll (or screenshots).  It's the closest thing yet to the full OneNote experience on an Apple device.

There are a couple of catches.  First off, it's an iPhone App, which could be seen as an advantage since it works on both platforms, but the display when zoomed in to fill the iPad screen is a little pixelated.  Also, you are required to publish your OneNote notebooks to Windows Live in order to access them.  Again, this could be seen as a positive, having your information available in the cloud, on your iPhone, your iPad and through Microsoft Office Live's web interface.  There are a few limitations on content - embedded files cannnot be accessed, although images show up fine.  There is no handwriting interface, one of OneNote's key features on the PC, but the iPhone and iPad aren't built for a pen interface, so this is to be expected.  I would love to see an iPad specific version which uses the full resolution available and maybe even lets you doodle or sketch.

If you use OneNote on the PC - you need this app.  If you don't use OneNote, you need to start!

If you are not sold already - it's FREE for a "limited time"!  Get it at the App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onenote/id410395246?mt=8