PCWorld has read between the lines from some comments said at this years CES and says that Windows 8 should be released this October. We all know that release dates can be pushed back (and should be to enable a stable and finished release), so take this as just an approximate date. It still looks like it is on schedule for a consumer preview (beta) sometime in late February.

Microsoft has been reluctant to say exactly when it will release Windows 8, but Poole seemed ready to offer a strong hint. "We haven’t talked about the release date and we generally don’t. We are talking milestone to milestone, so for us right now we’re talking about the next milestone being the consumer preview happening in late February," she says.

It saddens me to say that the worlds youngest MCP has passed away at the age of 16. She was an amazing and smart young girl.

In what could simply be described as an enormous loss for Pakistan, Arfa Karim, the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Saturday night, lost the battle of life after remaining admitted here at Combined Military Hospital for 26 days, Geo News reported.
Arfa Karim was only sixteen years old.
Her funeral prayers will be offered on Sunday at 10 AM in Cantt area.

After reading this article from BusinessWeek, I have more respect for Steve Ballmer. As CEO of Microsoft, he seems like he understands his failings and is changing his style to reflect those problems. He really seems like a normal person, a guy that you could have a good conversation with – even not when discussing Microsoft. I know my perspective has changed on this guy, what about yours? I wouldn’t mind meeting the guy now. Perhaps sometime in the future.

“Four years ago, you know, I can remember statistically when we would have looked far more like the overdog in everything,” he says. “Now we’ve got battles where we’re big and strong and powerful, and we’ve got battles where other guys are moving, and it’s fun to work both from the front of the pack and from the back of the pack sometimes. They’re different kinds of competition, but they both drive you, push you.”

With over 78% of software in China being pirated, Microsoft is finally going after some of those responsible. A retailer in China, Shanghai Gome and Buynow, is being sued by Microsoft for selling computers with pirated copies of Windows and Office. Will this solve anything over there? I doubt it, with Chinas lax anti-piracy laws. But, it’s a start.

Microsoft is boosting efforts to counter unauthorized use of its software in China, which surpassed the U.S. last year as the world’s biggest market for personal computers. About 78 percent of software in China was pirated in 2010, according to estimates by the Business Software Alliance.

ARM support in Windows 8 has been announced for quite a while, yet there really hasn’t been much in the way of demonstrations. Qualcomm has shown a demo at CES, running on it’s Snapdragon S4 processor. As an alternative to Intel’s x86 offerings, ARM is a great architecture to use for tablets due to it’s long battery life and low heat output. x86 compatibility in Windows 8 is supposed to be working, as well. I can’t wait to see a good hands on demonstration soon.

"Windows 8 is a great match for Snapdragon because we build our processors from the ground up," Jacobs told attendees. "Windows 8 ARM support is a game changer."

Tom Warren (of WinRumors fame – now on The Verge) has posted some new screenshots and a nice video of the newest build of the beta for Windows 8. Color chooser for the new Metro start screen, translucent Charms Bar, and much more. It looks excellent, and getting very polished compared to the early developer preview. I can’t wait to try out the beta come February.

Microsoft also confirmed some recently leaked images that demonstrated a color picker for the Start Screen, and a translucent Charms Bar. Windows 8 build 8175 includes the ability to switch the Start Screen colors, and you’ll see from our hands-on pictures that there’s a high level of customization available. The software giant has previously promised that a Windows 8 beta will be made available in late February, alongside the new Windows Store, and we’d expect to see these improvements alongside even more changes.

CES is in full swing, and the unlikely contender is getting much deserved attention. Windows Phone 7 is everywhere at CES, and not only at the booths. The attendees are talking about it. The Windows Phone 7 team is even out betting $100 that their phone can beat yours in a head to head test. This is great news for the Windows Phone platform, and it’s been all good attention, too!

But with its Windows Phone devices, Nokia has picked up not one, but two U.S. carriers for its Lumia handsets: T-Mobile for the 710 (a great little $49 phone I’ve used for the past week) and now AT&T for the 900. And now you can’t talk about Nokia without also discussing Microsoft or Windows Phone. From a buzz perspective, it’s a win for both companies, even though pricing and availability details are lacking on the AT&T handsets.

Microsoft has announced that the Kinect for Windows will be released February 1st. While it’s been available via a hack and SDK for a while, it’s now official and the official games should start pouring in. They made it a success for the Xbox, let’s see if they can make it a hit on Windows! Of course, you can preorder it from Amazon, already – $250 – a C-note more than the Xbox 360 version. I wonder what makes it so special. Definitely a niche product for the PC.

The worlds largest multi-user LCD display has been unveiled by MultiTouch Ltd.. Powered by Windows 7 and upgradable to Windows 8 later this year, it allows multiple users to use the touch screen interface. It uses the Surface 2.0 SDK for development, but lacks the PixelSense technology behind the Surface 2 hardware.

MultiTouch Ltd. introduces the world’s largest integrated multi-user LCD multitouch display, the MultiTaction® Cell 55. The product, a 55-inch display, is the first to emerge from the company’s new software and hardware platform for large-scale multitouch LCD displays, MultiTaction.

For those of us that weren’t able to make it to CES this year, and would like to watch Microsoft’s last CES keynote speech, you can watch it online via the Microsoft website. Starting at 6:30PM Pacific Time, you can watch as Ballmer talks Microsoft, Windows 8, and technology in general. With Microsoft leaving CES as a huge vendor (I’m sure they will be there in the future, just not in the huge way they currently are), I wonder how the rest of the conference will adjust.