Get apps from the Windows Store

There are tons of apps to choose from in the Windows Store, and more are being added all the time. Tap or click the Store tile on the Start screen to start browsing. Here's a small sample of what you'll find:

		ESPN Scores, breaking news, and in-depth game coverage. Personalized for you.				Angry Birds Star Wars Angry rebel birds face off against Pigtroopers.
		Hulu Plus Unlimited instant streaming of hit shows and movies. Try it free.				The New York Times Full-screen articles with fast and simple browsing.
		Nick Videos and games featuring Nick stars like SpongeBob and Big Time Rush.				Wordament Compete in two-minute tournaments against everyone else who's playing.
		eBay Get customizable alerts and stay on top of your auctions.				Epicurious Browse, save, and share 30,000+ professionally created recipes.
		iHeartRadio Listen to 1,500+ live stations and create your own commercial-free stations.				LivingSocial From dinner to skydiving, find and share activities in your city.

Five reasons Windows 8 could be a big hit

Windows 8 could be the biggest gamble that Microsoft has ever taken. But even though many people have said that gamble looks like a bad one, there's certainly a chance that it will pay off. Here are five reasons that Windows 8 could be a big hit.

People will get used to it, just like they did to Windows itself

As a general rule, when it comes to using computers, people don't embrace change, and Windows 8 represents a major change from previous Windows versioons. But another general rule is that people end up getting used to new ways of using computers, and it could well be that will happen with Windows 8.

When Windows 3, the first mass-market version of Windows, was first introduced, plenty of people grumbled about it. They hated the operating system's wasteful graphical frou-fraws. They complained that -- gasp! -- it actually required the use of a mouse. Typing incomprehensible instructions at the command line was the best way for people to use real computers to get real work done...who needs icons and pictures?

We knew how that turned out. Microsoft was right on target and Windows became the worldwide dominant operating system.

Those who are younger like it...and they're the future

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Microsoft says Metro apps are now "Windows 8 Store apps" -- is this the worst branding mistake of all time?

It's official: The apps once called Metro apps are now formally called "Windows 8 Store apps" by Microsoft. Along with being one of the worst branding moves of all time, the new name is misleading.

Gregg Keizer reports that at Microsoft's BUILD developer's conference Will Tschumy, a principal user experience advisor for Microsoft, said that the term "Windows 8 Store app" is now Microsoft's preferred name for apps that are written specifically to run on Windows 8.

Originally, the apps were called Metro apps because the new Windows 8 interface itself was called Metro. After dropping the Metro name due to a trademark dispute with a German company, various groups within Microsoft began calling the new interface and its apps "Modern," "Modern UI-style" and "Windows 8-style." Now, though, the formal name for the apps is "Windows 8 Store apps." But as Keizer points out, even though Microsoft says that "Windows 8 Store apps" is the proper name, Microsoft referred to "Windows store app" instead 23 times in the BUILD session descriptions.

The name Windows 8 Store apps doesn't exactly trip off the tongue lightly, does it? But it has other problems beyond its awkward name. First off, it's inaccurate. The Windows 8-specific apps that ship with Windows 8, such as People, Calendar, Mail, and so on, are built directly into the operating system, they're not gotten from the Windows Store. So that means that plenty of "Windows 8 Store apps" in fact aren't really Windows 8 Store apps, because they're baked right into Windows 8 software and don't need to be downloaded from the Windows 8 store.

The name also doesn't solve the problem of what to call the interface once known as Metro. Is it "Modern?" "Modern UI-style?" "Windows 8-style?" Microsoft isn't saying.

The problem goes deeper than being merely a matter of nomenclature. It gets to the core of the problem of having a single operating system with two separate interfaces. If Microsoft remains confused about what to call the new interface, imagine how users feel.

Microsoft launches hosted ALM service

After a year in beta, Microsoft has launched its Team Foundation Service, a hosted version of its application lifecycle management (ALM) software. Its usage, for the time being, has been limited to five or fewer users, however.

"ALM has traditionally been known to be very enterprise heavy, but [this service] could be utilized by people who may not need enterprise scale but could still benefit from tools and services to manage their projects," said Karthik Ravindran, senior director of ALM marketing and management.

There will be no cost for using TFS for five or fewer users, and it can be used for an unlimited number of projects. Subscribers to Microsoft MSDN's premium, ultimate and test pro plans will also get free access along with their subscriptions. Microsoft launched the service in conjunction with its annual developer-focused Build conference this week in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft did not offer a date for when the service would be commercially available for more than five users, nor how much the service would cost when it will be offered. The costs would be based on a combination of features and usage of computational and networking resources, Ravindran said. Teams of more than five can still access the service through individual MSDN subscriptions, or for free -- for the time being -- if they don't have MSDN. The free tier of five or fewer users will remain in place after the pricing options are introduced for more users.

Run on the company's Windows Azure cloud service, Team Foundation Service is a hosted version of the company's Team Foundation Server (TFS) ALM software. The service offers most of the capabilities of TFS, including version control, work item tracking, project planning and management, build automation, and continuous deployment. Building tools are still offered only in preview mode.

TFS supports not only the development of .Net software programs for Windows, but for other languages as well, including Java, PHP, JavaScript and PHP. The service can be incorporated into Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse and the Mac-centric Xcode IDEs (integrated development environments).

Microsoft is initially marketing the service to smaller ISVs (independent software vendors) as well as to larger organizations that may want to try ALM without purchasing the software. In the long term, Microsoft will offer the service as a full-scale replacement for on-premises ALM, or to be used in a hybrid mode where code management is shared between in-house servers and cloud services, Ravindran said.

The hosted service does not include all the capabilities of TFS, such as the ability to easily connect the ALM services with in-house deployments of other Microsoft server-based products, such as SharePoint, Ravindran said.

But one advantage that the hosted service would offer over TFS itself is that it is closely tied in with the Microsoft Windows Azure PaaS (platform as a service), Ravindran said. Someone building an Azure-based service can link the hosted ALM service directly with their Azure account, allowing them to "set up a continuous deployment where the bits can be seamlessly deployed into the Azure end-point," Ravindran said.

The service also supports distributed version control, through the use of a bridge to the open-source GIT version-control software. Developers can use their local copies of GIT to clone the code base from the service, work on the code, and then, when finished, merge it back into the canonical code base on the Team Foundation Service. "Not all companies are comfortable with their developers having local versions of all the source code. [Distributed version control] is a pretty common pattern with startups, but it's not common in enterprises," Ravindran said.

ALM software manages the development of software programs across different departments within an organization. It includes not only version-control software -- which captures all the changes of the developing code -- but also includes testing, building and deployment capabilities, as well as oversight tools for project managers and product owners. "Development of the code becomes a team process, especially as the project starts scaling," Ravindran said.

In addition to Microsoft, other companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, CollabNet, CA Technologies and Coverity offer ALM software as well.

Microsoft Office for iOS, Android said to arrive in 2013 -- will this help or hurt Microsoft?

The latest rumors have Microsoft Office launching for iOS and Android early next year. This would certainly help Microsoft on competing tablet and smartphone platforms. But will those gains be offset by the harm done to Windows 8 and RT tablets and Windows Phone 8?

The Verge has what it claims to be a screenshot of Office running on the iPad,and reports that Office will be released for iOS and Android in early 2013. It says that the free version of Office on iOS and Android will only provide the ability to view Office files, but that with a subscription fee for Office 365, you will be able to ability to edit them as well.

This will clearly help Microsoft on competing tablet and smartphone platforms. But it also may harm the company's hopes to gain market share for Windows 8 and RT tablets, and for Windows Phone 8.

Windows RT tablets ship with a free version of Office as does Windows Phone 8. That gives those platforms some competitive advantage over iOS and Android smartphone and tablets. Today, if you want Office on a tablet or smartphone, you've got to buy a device that runs on a platform from Microsoft. But by early next year, if the Verge report is accurate, you'll be able to get Office on a device that runs on competing platforms.

So there's no doubt that releasing Office on iOS or Android will make it somewhat harder for Microsoft to gain tablet or smartphone martket share. But that's more than offset by the gains Microsoft will making by having Office run on iOS and Android.

Windows is no longer Microsoft's main cash cow. Its most recent earnings report shows that the Windows division's net income was down 22% and revenue down 8% compared to a year previous. Its revenue of $3.24 billion trailed the Business Division's revenue of $5.5 billion and the Server and Tools business of $4.55 billion.

Office is part of the Business Division, which is Microsoft's biggest revenue generator. Having Office available on iOS and Android will certainly help increase Microsoft's revenue. And it will do more as well: It will help make sure that people continue to use Office rather than Google Docs or Google Apps. That's more important than the relatively small incremental market share Microsoft may gain by not releasing a version of Office for iOS and Android.

So releasing Office for iOS and Android is a very good move for Microsoft, and a recognition that its future is beyond Windows.

Windows Phone 8 will tell users where to find free Wi-Fi

Microsoft will provide information about the location and quality of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Windows Phone 8 so users can find the best nearby networks.

The information will come from a database of 11 million hotspots worldwide that is created and maintained by Devicescape, a vendor of Wi-Fi software for carriers. Devicescape has licensed the database to Microsoft for inclusion in Windows Phone 8 handsets.

Devicescape finds out about mobile hotspots by learning which hotspots users go onto and what kind of performance they get while using them, said David Nowicki, Devicescape's chief marketing officer. It filters the many hotspots that may be visible in a given area and shows the most popular ones that have been delivering good performance, he said. For the Windows Phone 8 deal, Devicescape will provide data only about networks that are free, though some of them may require users to agree to terms of use.

In the U.S., the hotspot data will only be available on phones from Verizon Wireless, under an exclusive deal between Microsoft and Verizon. Elsewhere in the world it will be built into all Windows Phone 8 handsets regardless of service provider. The feature is coming out on Verizon in the next two weeks and elsewhere by the end of the year, Nowicki said. Availability in the U.S. may extend beyond Verizon in the future, Nowicki said. 

If they choose to turn it on, users will be able to access the hotspot information through Microsoft's Data Sense app, announced last week, as well as through the Local Scout feature of Bing Search and the phones' built-in maps. In each case, the hotspots will appear in a map view. Data Sense is a tool designed to help users manage their mobile data use and monthly cellular bill.

Carriers are trying to help their subscribers find and use Wi-Fi hotspots because those networks help both the service provider and the subscriber. While giving users a way to use data without cutting into their monthly allocations, hotspots also shift demand for that data capacity away from the carrier's networks. The deal with Microsoft doesn't include Devicescape software that helps users automatically log on to hotspots, just information about the free hotspots in a given area.

Devicescape does not provide its hotspot data directly through the other major mobile OSes. Individual mobile operators, including five in the U.S., offer Devicescape's own software for Android devices. The company is working on software for Apple iOS, he said. It doesn't offer apps or databases directly to consumers.

Microsoft slates first Windows 8, RT patches since launch

 Microsoft today announced it will issue six security updates next week, including three for Windows 8 and its tablet spin-off Windows RT.

The half-dozen updates will patch 19 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE) and the .Net framework.

The four critical updates -- the highest threat ranking in Microsoft's four-step system -- will patch 13 bugs, including an unknown number in Windows Server 2012, Windows 8 and Windows RT, the operating system that powers Microsoft's own Surface RT tablet, according to the advance warning Microsoft published Thursday.

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