Finally, Microsoft is simplifying buying Windows. No longer do you have to look through a list of features that you want to find one of the 7 different versions of the same operating system to find out which edition you need. Rather than go with Home, Home Premium, Pro, Enterprise, Ultimate, etc., you can go with Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro for x86 machines or for an ARM powered device: Windows 8 RT.

I’ve noticed a lot of back lash with the name of ‘RT’. I don’t get it, though. I don’t walk into a store and ask for an Android Ice Cream Sandwich powered handheld tablet device. I ask for an Android Tablet. Similar to Windows – I ask for a Windows Tablet. I’m not going to ask for a Windows 8 RT powered tablet device. It’s a brand name, and it will rarely get used outside of the tech community. If it is a Windows ARM device, it runs Windows 8 RT. You don’t need to know the full naming conventions to buy a Windows 8 tablet.

I’m going Pro for the desktop & have to get a Windows 8 RT powered electronic tablet touchscreen device for my portable device. As it stands now on my laptop: Windows 7. I have 8 on there now, but the touchpad needs some work to make Windows 8 better. It’s not bad, but it’s not better than 7 with the touchpad. So, I use an external USB mouse and I love it.

For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. For many consumers, Windows 8 will be the right choice. It will include all the features above plus an updated Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and the ability to switch languages on the fly (more details on this feature can be found in this blog post),which was previously only available in Enterprise/Ultimate editions of Windows. For China and a small set of select emerging markets, we will offer a local language-only edition of Windows 8.

If you feel like you would like to give Microsoft your feedback, the Windows 8 team is asking you to apply to their Windows Feedback Program. It is an opt-in program that you need to apply for. You can give feedback through surveys or by installing a client on your PC. As an incentive, they are giving those that participate a chance to win some software or Xbox games.

Apply here if you want to give Microsoft a bit of feedback – good or bad – it all helps make Windows 8 a better operating system in the end.

Microsoft had the idea and could have monopolized the smartphone market if they brought the idea to final product. In 1991, they had an idea that was revolutionary and way ahead of it’s time. A product similar to modern day smartphones, complete with email and GPS capabilities. This was before Windows 95 was even a twinkle in Bill Gates eye. Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft employee dishes it all out in a Men’s Journal interview worth reading.

Who knows, if this was released and refined in the 90’s, perhaps the iPhone would have never been released. Microsoft has had some amazing ideas in the past, and many of them have been scrapped into the dumpster for no apparent reason. I’ve seen some amazing things come from the Microsoft labs that just seem to disappear with no more mention.

But believe it or not, Myhrvold also wants to be taken seriously. At 53, he isn’t satisfied with going down in history as the biggest lobe in Bill Gates’ brain trust, or even as an eccentric Renaissance man with a dinosaur in his house. He wants a legacy he can call his own. And instead of focusing on one big thing, he’s hedging his bets: The lab where we’re dining isn’t just an experimental kitchen for his landmark book but a 20,000-square-foot research center for the exploration and creation of new technologies. It houses obscure inventions like “an incredibly exotic antenna that will one day revolutionize communications” and a refrigerated closet full of mosquitoes for vaccine experiments. “In fact, if you come this way,” he says, during a guided tour, “we actually have a system where we can shoot mosquitoes out of the sky with lasers.”

Office 15, Internet Explorer 10, Windows Phone 8 – all part of the leaked roadmap for Microsoft products. According to this, IE 10 could be released very soon, Office 15 early next year and Windows Phone 8 later this year. Good news, but nothing is shown for Windows 8 other than the long passed Developer Preview.

So, Windows Phone 8 later this year – which means Verizon should have it by 2015…. sounds about right with Verizon. IE10, hopefully allows me to set the installation directory as I have issues running it with an SSD with my Program Files on a separate drive.

Microsoft has begun sending out a roadmap that shows some details about its future software products such as Office 15, Internet Explorer 10, and Windows Phone to some of its partners. One of them, CEO of Meetroo Maarten Visser, shared part of it over Twitter, revealing said details. Dated December 22, 2011, the images weren’t password-protected. Considering the date, the Windows roadmap doesn’t mention anything past the Developer Preview and certainly not the Consumer Preview that launched on February 29.

Yes, it’s true. With a $25 app, Windows 8 on a desktop, and an Apple iPad, you can stream your Metro apps to the iPad via Splashtop. While it’s not a replacement for a Windows 8 tablet, it does allow developers and enthusiasts to preview the applications using gestures and a real touch screen device. As Windows 8 tablets are not available (Windows 7 tablets are, and they run Win8, but not native Win8 tablets), this is about the only way to go at this time. I’d really like to see some development devices come out from Microsoft to allow developers to program for Windows 8 running on native Windows 8 hardware. Without it, I’m thinking another Vista may be coming. Hardware manufacturers aren’t ready, Microsoft is rushing to get Windows 8 out the door, and there are a lot of developers that are developing for non-existent hardware.

The Win8 Metro Testbed program allows app developers to test how their touch screen features work. It supports swiping from the left of the iPad to switch between Windows 8 apps and also supports swiping from the right to view the Windows 8 Charms menu. The app lets developers test the Windows 8 "snaps" feature which allows two Metro apps to run side by side along with pulling down an app from the top of the screen to close it.

Skyrim, the highly popular RPG from Bethesda, is set to get some new features in the form of Kinect integration and voice commands. I’m glad some developers are including Kinect users in their standard games, it makes the Kinect a get piece of hardware that I can actually use!

Presumably, all 24 of the Dragon Shouts will be available via voice commands. Other voice commands will include menu options, such as the ability to save and load games as well as commands for accessing inventory. The voice commands will also support a number of commands for followers and hotkey equipping. The full list of voice commands is expected to be the released by developer Bethesda in the coming weeks.

Today marks the day that Microsoft ends mainstream support for Windows Vista. Extended support goes another 5 years, until April 11th, 2017. For those without an extended support contract, it may be time to look ahead and upgrade to Windows 7 or wait it out and upgrade to Windows 8 on release. XP has already passed the Mainstream support period and is nearing it’s final death toll, ending the extended support in 2014.

Every Windows product has a lifecycle. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it’s no longer supported or sold. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to upgrade or make other changes to your software. Here are the rights and limits of the Windows lifecycle.

While not directly related to Microsoft, I’m sure Microsoft has a lot to thank Mr. Tamiel for – from Commodore to Atari, he was a great man. A great loss. This man went through a lot. If you have any interest in video games or computing, I suggest reading about this man. I read about him in a history of video games book as well as a book called “Commodork”.

In America, Tramiel founded a typewriter repair business. Staying on the forefront of technology, his typewriters morphed into calculators, and later computers. In 1982, Commodore International launched the Commodore 64, which went on to the best-selling personal computer of all time. Tramiel also founded Atari Inc. in 1984.

Sounds like my Grandpa wrote this article. Apparently, Microsoft is hip again with all these new fangled companies getting some bogus news stories. Bummer, Daddy-o. As long as they don’t start attracting the hipsters, we’ll all be good. That’s one thing Microsoft doesn’t need is a lot of poseur hipsters writing novels (playing Farmville on Facebook) on their new Dell sitting at Starbucks sipping their vegan vente cappuccino.

Which brings us to the other aspect of Microsoft’s renaissance: good timing. The once-hipper than Microsoft foes, Google and Apple haven’t looked so good these days. Google, the once beloved search company, has users uneasy with its Google+ integration, privacy issues and anti-trust concerns. Even Googlers aren’t too sure of Google’s mission, these days.

The next version of the Kinect for Windows will be available late May, according to Microsoft. Several new features were announced, from Kinect Studio, a new seated or 10 joint skeletal system. Still available at $250, it is a bit rich for my blood unless an onslaught of Kinect for Windows software is forthcoming. Also, later this year a $149 academic version is going to be released.

Eisler also promised four new languages for speech recognition – French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. On that front, Kinect for Windows will also get new language packs that take into account how a language is spoken in different regions – like American vs. British English or France vs. Canadian French.