Sinofsky shows off Windows 8 on ARM and Office15 - Register

Windows boss Stephen Sinofsky has ended months of speculation with the first (fairly) detailed drilldown into Windows 8 on ARM (WOA) platform, and says it should be ready for a simultaneous launch with its x86/64 counterpart.

Devices running WOA will come with both a Metro touch-based interface and the more traditional desktop, and will run Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote applications with full document compatibility with x86/64 systems. Photo sharing, calendar, mail, storage and contact applications will also be the same as on ARM and x86/64. But that’s it for compatibility – all other apps on WOA have to be Metro-style WinRT and come via the Windows Store.

Office 15 Excel will be compatible with your desktop

Virtualized code on the platform is out too. The process of running emulators for x86/64 applications was far too battery and processor-heavy, and too unstable Sinofsky said, so they would have to be built in an entirely new style. That said, Microsoft said it is making life as easy as possible for developers to compile WinRT applications in Visual Studio.

“If we enabled the broad porting of existing code we would fail to deliver on our commitment to longer battery life, predictable performance, and especially a reliable experience over time,” he said. “The conventions used by today’s Windows apps do not necessarily provide this, whether it is background processes, polling loops, timers, system hooks, startup programs, registry changes, kernel mode code, admin rights, unsigned drivers, add-ins, or a host of other common techniques.”

Metro-only on most WOA apps

WOA will come with Internet Explorer 10, support for HTML5 , hardware accelerated graphics and also makes greater use of integrated hardware subsystems for more power efficiency. Sinofsky claimed this would make multitasking, such as playing a movie and reading a document, much more power efficient.

Power is the key the whole deal. WOA devices aren’t designed to be switched on and off, but left in standby, for weeks it is claimed. Sinofsky stressed how closely Redmond was working with Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to develop these devices – almost exclusively fondleslabs one would imagine - that can match what’s on the market today, with the iPad the obvious target.

The first devices should be in the hands of a few, pre-picked developers next month and Office 15 is already out to a similar group of Microsoft testers. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is also due out next month, and Sinofsky pointed out the name change from “beta” was because, to some companies (no names mentioned,) the meaning of the term beta as "testing release available for free to try out," seemed to have changed.

Microsoft is stressing that the two different styles will be distinctly branded to avoid consumer confusion and would have standardized connections via USB 3.0 and Bluetooth. The clunky units in the blog video will be replaced with fondleslabs designed around “industrial design, long battery life, and integrated quality,” Sinofsky promised. ®

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Adobe's Flash-based AIR hits Android and RIM tablet - Register

Adobe MAX 2010 Adobe Systems is targeting mobiles, TVs, and app-stores with new editions of various Flash-centric tools and its Rich Internet Application (RIA) framework.

The company has unveiled preview editions of the next Flex Framework, its Flash Builder design and development environment, the Flash Catalyst design tool, and version 2.5 of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Previews are due at Adobe's annual MAX conference in Los Angeles, California, with final code promised for sometime in 2011.

Adobe's software now works on Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, putting Flash-based applications and services on these devices.

The software isn't yet working on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 because Adobe missed a cut-off date for the release of Microsoft's latest mobile operating system, launched this month. Adobe is still working with Microsoft to deliver AIR on Windows Phone 7, Adobe told The Reg.

Flex Framework and Flash Builder will be updated to work on Apple's tablet-tastic iOS in an unspecified follow-on release, but Flex Catalyst won't be making the move.

Adobe said it picked the Blackberry tablet because RIM is being very aggressive and "really wants to get into the game."

Adobe and prime tablet provider Apple have had a major falling out during 2010, as Steve Jobs lambasted Flash, championed HTML5 as the Flash alternative, and went to extraordinary lengths to confuse developers and exclude Flash from the iPad.

As it now stands, Flash can cross compile on iOS, but Adobe must use native code for the runtime on Apple. On non-Apple devices, AIR is the runtime.

Adobe has also announced that smart TVs from Samsung Electronics due in 2011 will work with applications built using Flex and the Flash tools.

Applications will be built using Adobe's tools and made available for sale and download to TVs from Samsung's TV App Store, which will run outside the browser on TV sets.

To that end, Adobe will today unveil Inmarket - a service Adobe promised would see developers upload their apps to be sold on other providers' stores.

Inmarket will take care of deployment and billing, and provide an accounting break down of where their applications have sold, Adobe promised.

The idea is that developers will code their applications once and they won't need to worry about difference service providers deployment characteristics or dealing with billing and payment systems, Adobe said.

The service also means Adobe can remain relevant in a world of app stores, as the company becomes the holder of hundreds of thousands of apps in its warehouse.

The first store to work with Inmarket will be Intel's App Up Store, and Adobe expects to run 10 more stores across desktops, mobiles, tablets, and TVs in 2011, group product marketing manger for Flex and Flash Builder Dave Gruber told The Reg. Adobe's middleman service will initially only work for AIR-based apps and will be free initially, Gruber said. Other apps would be considered later, and Adobe will re-evaluate whether to charge in a year, he said.

There is, of course, one app store unlikely to be participating in Adobe's warehouse-retail model: Apple's App Store. Apple is not in talks with Adobe to use the service.

"I'm not sure frankly that will happen, Apple isn't motivated to do this." Gruber said.

He noted that Apple isn't the only big app store player in the game, and Adobe will counter by giving developers access to as many app stores as possible, hoping to provide the broadest reach.

Adobe is going big on mobile and TV in this round of releases, as it tries to take its Flash player and the Flash-based AIR to more screens than just those found on a PC. Adobe's hope is that more Flash-based apps can be written-once and run-anywhere using the same framework.

AIR 2.5 adds support for mobile to help this. Phone staples such as accelerometers, multi-touch, gesture, geo-location, and camerashave been exposed in the Flex framework and made easier to access. New mobile UI components have been added and application performance tweaked by between 40 and 60 per cent depending on the application and handset. Performance has been improved by "thinning" the number of libraries in AIR.

Flash Builder features a new packaging function to deploy apps to different mobile devices. Adobe is also working with handset makers and OEMs to make AIR run well on their hardware. The company has promised its AIR on HTC, Motorola, and Acer systems, in addition to RIM and Samsung.

For developers, Flash Builder and Catalyst have bi-directional workflow to pass code and design elements backwards and forwards been creatives and coders.

Also continuing the focus on mobile is Adobe's LiveCycle that's been extended to Android, Blackberry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile. LiveCycle is Adobe's suite for building and customizing business-applications' workflows, so - conceivably - you can now use Adobe to run back-office documents and apps on mobile in addition to the PC.

LiveCycle enterprise Suite 2.5, due Monday, will connect to Microsoft's SharePoint 2010 through a new connector, and work with your security model to control who views, copies, or forwards documents. Also, there's a new JavaScript API so Adobe's software works on platforms that work with HTML but not Flash - like the iPhone or iPad. ®

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