Windows 8 Start menu should return in August, thanks to new, faster release cycle

Microsoft, recognizing the disappointing truth that iOS and Android aren’t going to being chivalrous and slow down while it fixes Windows 8, is planning to speed up its release cadence yet again. The original plan was to push out a large update every 12 months, rather than releasing a whole new operating system every three years. Now, however, it seems the next major update will arrive as soon as August or September, just a few months after the release of Windows 8.1 Update 1. Yes, this means that, after a very odd 18 months in limbo, the Start menu will officially return this summer.

At its Build developer conference at the start of April, alongside the official unveil of Windows 8.1 Update 1, Microsoft teased the audience with a new Start menu and the ability to run windowed Metro apps on the Desktop. Everyone was rather excited: These were the two main features that keyboard-and-mouse users had been clamoring for since Microsoft first revealed the new Metro Start screen way back in June 2011. At the end of the demo, as the audience gave Microsoft a resounding why-did-this-take-you-three-years? round of applause, Microsoft’s OS chief Terry Myerson dropped the bombshell that these features would come in a “future update.”

Obviously, given Microsoft’s rather lackadaisical approach to updates, we thought it would be another 12 months until the Start menu and windowed Metro apps actually made it to Windows 8. Not so: According to the (surprisingly accurate) Russian leaker Wzor, Update 2 is coming in September. ZDNet and The Verge, citing their own sources, say that the update is coming in August. None of these sources are confirming that the Start menu will return in August/September, but it’s fairly likely. Windowed Metro apps might make it into Update 2, but they could also be pushed back to Windows 9 (currently due in spring 2015).

Windows 8.1 Update 1 Desktop
Windows 8.1 Update 1 (the current version of Windows). Metro apps can be minimized to the taskbar, but they can’t yet be run in a window on the Desktop.
The Windows 8.1 Start menu, when it eventually returns, will look like a hybrid of the Windows 7 Start menu and the tile-based Windows 8 Start screen. There will be the usual apps list, folder hierarchy, and search box on the left — and a bunch of live tiles on the right. Presumably the live tile section will be configurable (and hopefully removable as well, though Microsoft probably won’t be that graceful in defeat). The windowed Metro apps will basically let you run Metro-style apps on the Desktop — you’ll be able to minimize them to the taskbar, resize them, and drag them freely between monitors. This still doesn’t fix the problem of Metro apps being intrinsically hard to use with a mouse and keyboard, though. (If you don’t want to wait for the official return of the Start menu, check out these third-party Start menu replacements — they’re pretty good!)

While consumers should be rightfully excited by the long-overdue return of the Start menu, Microsoft’s shift to a rapid release cycle may cause problems in business/enterprise settings. When it comes to large-scale PC deployments, Windows is it, and has been for some 20 years. IT and sysadmins are used to a much more sedate Windows release cycle, giving them plenty of time to test and plan rollouts to hundreds or thousands of computers. Earlier in the month, Microsoft upset a lot of businesses by announcing that it would only support Windows 8.1 for 30 days after the release of Update 1 — a window that was later increased to 120 days due to backlash.

Microsoft would love to release Windows updates every few months so that it can keep pace with the iOS and Android competition — but doing so might alienate the large businesses, institutions, and enterprises that make up a sizable portion of Microsoft’s revenues. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft ameliorates the vastly different requirements of consumers and businesses.

Source: Extremetech

Fastest Mobile Networks 2014 needs your help

Everyone thinks they know which mobile network is the fastest, which is the most reliable, and which has the best coverage in their area. Chances are that you have some pretty good anecdotal evidence about the correct answer for each question, but the simple fact is that someone should do some real testing to figure out which of Cleveland’s mobile networks is the fastest and if Verizon actually is more reliable than Sprint in Philadelphia. That’s exactly what PCMag’s Fastest Mobile Networks does each year.

Our colleagues at PCMag organized Fastest Mobile Networks (FMN) in order to quantitatively test which of the nation’s major mobile networks were the fastest in each segment of the country, which was the most reliable, and which had the best coverage. It turns out that this sort of testing is a huge undertaking, but by getting six cars, filling each with eight LG G2 smartphones, and then sending it on a predetermined course around the country, it’s possible to get a good idea about the status of the nation’s mobile coverage. These routes cover 30 major cities and all the areas between them, with a huge amount of data collected along the way.

FMN 2014The FMN car fleet is very good at what it does, but it can’t offer complete coverage of the country. That’s why the other component of Fastest Mobile Networks data is crowdsourced. Anyone in the US with a mobile device can load up Sensorly’s free app (available on both Android and iOS), take a speed test, and contribute their anonymized data to the test. There are other reasons to keep the app after you do the test, such as for coverage maps and data usage analysis, so you’ll be doing more than helping out the FMN team when you download it.

Fastest Mobile Networks 2014 runs from May 1 until the end of the month, during which time people will contribute their own data and the cars will be making their way across the country. You can follow the team’s progress at @pcmphones and get live updates from each driver. At the end of the testing period PCMag’s team will pool the data, choose each area’s best carrier, and then decide which of America’s mobile networks reigns supreme.

The final results will be freely available on PCMag.com — not hidden away in a white paper or bundled into an expensive report — so you’ll be able to see the outcome you contributed to and get a better idea of which network is the best in your part of the country.