windows
Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet minimum requirements revealed
Curious as to what sort of hardware Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablets will feature? Well, much like Windows Phone handsets, it looks like Microsoft will be keeping a pretty tight leash on their manufacturing partners as to the minimum specs that they would have to adhere to if they wish to produce Windows 8 tablets. While some might argue it could restrict creativity, much like Apple’s iPhone, a more streamlined process could help ensure a consistent user experience across the board.
According to Rafael Rivera of withinwindows, these are the minimum hardware specs that Windows 8 manufacturers would have to follow:
- Storage: At least 10gb free space after the out-of-box experience completes
- System firmware: UEFI
- Networking: WLAN and Bluetooth 4.0 + LE (low energy)
- Graphics: Direct3D 10 device w/ WDDM 1.2 driver
- Resolution: 1366×768
- Touch support: At least 5 touch points, must pass all tests
- Camera: 720p
- Ambient Light Sensor: 1-30k lux capable w/ dynamic range of 5-60K
- Magnetometer
- Accelerometer: 3 axes w/ data rates >= 50Hz
- Gyroscope
- USB 2.0: At least one controller and exposed port
- Speakers
Other requirements include a a minimum of 5-point digitizers, which basically means multitouch of up to 5 fingers (an entire hand). Windows 8 tablets would also require NFC touch marks, hardware buttons, and a button combo that would perform the CTRL-ALT-DEL action. If you’d like more details on these features, you will be able to find a detailed explanation at withinwindows.
It is quite a feeling to have a smartphone getting the latest operating system update up and running, that is for sure. After all, you can never quite tell just what kind of goodies that your handset would receive now, can you? Those who are rocking to a Windows Phone 8.1 device might be looking forward to spending Christmas with a Windows 10 Mobile update but it seems that such hopes will have to be shelved for the moment.
It seems that there will be no Windows 10 update arriving this month as originally speculated, and the time frame itself has been altered, being even more vague in nature – where it has been mentioned to be “early next year”, which could jolly well mean any time, even in April. Looks like patience needs to be had in boatloads here.
So, you are still rocking to the Xiaomi Mi 4 and are more than happy with the device, right? Well, how about enjoying an operating system upgrade when December 3rd rolls around? This is what will happen to the Xiaomi Mi 4, where it has been teased by Xiaomi’s Founder and President Lin Bin on Weibo, citing the December 3rd date. I suppose it is encouraging to take note that this bit arrives close to nine months after Microsoft and Xiaomi came to an agreement, where there would be support for the Windows 10 Technical Preview on the Mi 4 handset.
Just in case you were wondering, there is another device from Xiaomi which will rock to the Windows 10 OS, and that would be the recently announced Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 tablet, with that particular device arriving in a 64GB memory configuration alongside an asking price of $205 thereabouts.
Trivia lovers, here is something that might just pique your interest. After all, don’t you wish you had all sorts of information at your fingertips? Windows Phone lovers will be pleased to hear that there is a leak concerning information about the Windows Phone Store, and such information can be said to be ‘ancient”, as it dates back all the way to October 2011 with the introduction of Windows Phone 7.5.
So far, the most popular downloaded app happens to be Facebook with more than 112 million installations – no surprise there at all, I suppose. WhatsApp is behind Facebook considerably at 92 million downloads, while OneDrive has 62.5 million downloads. Located close to the bottom of the food chain would be PayPal that picked up a mere 1.6 million downloads all this while, and 2.5 million for Telegraph.
Third party apps as well as games have had their fair share of hits, too, like Tube HD that handles the playback of YouTube videos with more than 13 million downloads. Of course, these figures would pale in comparison to what Android and iOS platforms have garnered all this while.