We are still roughly 6 months out for the January 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, but there is already talk about the keynote speech from Steve Ballmer. Reportedly giving the public their first taste of Windows 8 with the release of a public beta, Ballmer is going to get the crowd excited, as usual.

Microsoft’s upcoming BUILD developer event in September is expected to bring some more Windows 8 news, but more specific to developers rather than public end user consumption.

Microsoft has been keynoting at CES for a number of years and 2012 will be no different. Ballmer is set to take to the stage at 6:30PM on Monday January 9 in The Venetian. Microsoft has previously introduced the original Xbox and Avatar Kinect during its keynote address. The software giant used CES 2009 to launch the first public beta of its Windows 7 operating system.

According to Russian site MSWin.Me, Windows 8 beta may be released between July 14th and the 28th. While this is just a rumor, it may have some merit. The previous rumor was that Microsoft was going to release the Community Technology Preview at the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, California in July.

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft at the end of June was to gather the community technology preview (CTP) version of Windows 8 to demonstrate (and, possibly, to "test drive") to its partners at the Conference, WPC2011, to be held in Los Angeles from 10 to 14 July. Information about whether the established this Assembly, we do not have, but there is something more meaningful: one of the team members, WZor.net has shared information about what Windows 8 beta, according to their sources, collected between 14 and 28 July.

Windows 7 had the commercials and focused on consumer feedback and suggestions to improve the operating system. It seems that with Windows 8, that is not longer the case.

A former IT manager, Chris Carlucci, had sent Microsoft an email for a suggestion to improve Windows 8. The reply he got from Microsoft Customer Service Representative Alex was less than encouraging.

For Alex began in a hopeful tone: "I understand you would like to submit suggestion for the next generation of Windows. I will be glad to assist you with the information."

However, things went a little awry in the very next paragraph: "Chris, I would like to inform you that, while Microsoft does accept suggestions for existing products and services, we do not accept suggestions for new products, technologies, processes."

So, while Microsoft may take some suggestions for products that are currently released and in production, they will not take any for upcoming products. How this makes the products better is beyond me. Perhaps to improve later editions of software, but leave the current (or near release) buggy and incomplete by a consumer viewpoint.

The Windows Live team has posted a YouTube video showing the speed difference 6 months can make with their updated Hotmail web email client. It sure has come a long way since the HoTMaiL  days. I wonder if my old (OLD) login would still work?

It appears to be around twice as fast, but I am sure there is some bias in there to make it look better than it actually is, even unintentionally. How did they squeeze some extra speed out of the client? Caching, preloading and asynchronous operations.

I’ve been saying that Windows isn’t a touch screen operating system for some time now, and I was hoping that Windows 8 would remedy that. However, Ryan Stevens has a similar outlook as mine, but also includes Windows 8. The success of the iPad has been due to the very simple OS and UI. It was built from the ground up to be a touch screen operating system, simple and efficient.

As much as I’d like to see Windows 8 succeed as a touch screen operating system, I think that manufacturer backing would need to be a priority at this time. Microsoft would need to take the same stance as it has with the Windows Phone 7, with all hardware having similar and minimum specifications and needed to be adhered to. Windows history and success depended on the fact that anyone could build a PC to run Windows. There are too many variables to contend with when building a PC or a notebook to keep a touch screen OS lean and efficient. If there were a single piece of hardware, I can guarantee that Microsoft could make an OS as good as or better than Apple’s iOS.

Will Windows 8 be Microsoft’s golden ticket into the tablet market? It has yet to be seen, but an all in one desktop/tablet/laptop operating system isn’t the answer for Microsoft. It needs to be a dedicated tablet OS, created from the ground up with no legacy support.

New data shows that Internet Explorer usage has been falling a few percentage points the past few months. While a small change is usually expected, the amounts seen are pretty high as far as market share goes.

IE9 was supposed to be the browser that fixed Microsoft’s problems, according to NetApps. In January, IE share was 56 percent. A year earlier 62.12 percent, and 75.47 percent in January 2008. Unless Microsoft can reverse the ongoing trend, Internet Explorer’s global market share will fall below 50 percent sometime in the next 12-18 months.

Floppy disks have been around for a long time. Some of the recent 3.5” disks could hold 1.44 MB of information. These days, it’s faster to download or email a file over the internet than it is to load it from a floppy disk (even if the disk is already in the PC!). Here’s some other uses for them, if you feel the need.

More than 1,000 readers e-mailed in response to the Magazine’s request to explain their attachment to the once universally popular 3.5" diskettes. Many pointed out floppies are needed to access even newer computers’ deepest innards – their Bios. (A surprising number also enjoyed pointing out the South African term for floppies – stiffies – though let’s not dwell too long on that.)

Intel is set to release a new Atom CPU in time for the release of Windows 8. Codenamed “Cloverview” along with the Clover Trail platform, it is a 32nm processor aimed at competing with the ARM processors that Windows is now supporting. As usual, innovation by software helps make the hardware vendors innovate and advance! It’s a game of leap frog!

Intel executives see the combination of Intel’s Clover Trail platform and "Cloverview" processor with Windows 8 as a strong entrant in the burgeoning tablet space and a big player in netbooks and other devices, according to a report on the Website This Is My Next.

After many rumors that Steve Ballmer is going to leave Microsoft after the release of Windows 8, he has personally said that he isn’t going. I don’t mind the guy, but I don’t like him, either. Stock prices went stagnant after he took the reigns, and I don’t feel he has the “nerd” in him as Billy did. Bill Gates was a nerd, he offered his own input into the products, he knew what to expect and what not to expect. I’m sure he has the energy, as he comes off as a car salesman or was mentored by Billy Mays!

Many Microsoft critics, including many Wall Streeters , have been wondering aloud whether Ballmer is the right man to lead Microsoft these days. At a Seattle Rotary Club meeting on June 29, when asked the question yet again, Ballmer had an official response.

“YOU TELL ME if I lack energy or conviction, or we’re not driving all the change we need to drive,” Ballmer told the audience, according to GeekWire.

The new Beta 2 version of Mango for Windows Phone 7 was released to developers today. Some new features have been exposed with it, too. One, support for a forward facing camera, looks promising. If they can make an application that is similar to FaceTime for the Apple, I’d be very interested. Of course, how long until the hardware supports the feature is a different story.