Microsoft shows Windows 8 on existing Ultrabooks, acts like it's never seen a thin laptop before

The majority of first-gen Ultrabooks aren't on sale yet -- not even with Windows 7 -- but Microsoft's already showing off tomorrow's best and brightest with Windows 8. We already knew that Windows 8 would theoretically run on a now-ancient Lenovo S10, but if you're concerned about "futureproofing," it looks as if the thinnest and lightest in the Wintel world will be good enough to run a developer build of Win8. You know -- when the files hit the wild tonight at 8PM PT.

Windows 8 details: new features, UI enhancements and everything in between

Today, Windows Division prexy Steven Sinofsky treated Build 2011 attendees to a walkthrough of the various tweaks, subtle or otherwise, Microsoft's made to Windows 8. Staying true to its roots, the new OS implements the familiar keyboard commands users have become accustomed to over the years -- you know, like CMD and Ctrl+F. And as for its update to Internet Explorer, MS has imbued its tenth iteration with the ability to switch between the much-hyped Metro-style UI and plain old desktop view -- all according to your whimsy.

HTC Runnymede and Bliss details sneak out from leak-town

Naming your flagship handset after a small village in Surrey isn't what we'd do, but then we aren't in the handset business. The first full render of the HTC Runnymede has leaked and as you can see, it's one big heap of telephone. It's the first phone to benefit from the company's partnership with Beats Audio and will come with a pair of Beats-branded cans rather than regular earbuds. If you missed the specs first time around, the 4.7-inch, 9.9mm thick phone gets a beastly 768MB of RAM, 1.5GHZ Qualcomm chip and a serious 8 megapixel camera with f2.2 lens and double LED flash round back. Availability is still up in the air but we know that UK prices are £499 or £530 for the 16 or 32GB versions (roughly $790 and $840, respectively).

HTC also apparently thinks that women don't buy enough of its phones, so it's releasing the HTC Bliss, a smartphone that's reportedly designed specifically for women. HTC's belief is that the ladyphone needs to be smaller, gentler and do generally less than its contemporaries -- it gets a much smaller 3.7-inch Super LCD display and a 5 megapixel camera. This is my next has also confirmed that the Bliss comes with an accessory called the Charm Indicator, a light-up bauble that fits to a handbag or bracelet (depending on size) and flashes when your phone requires attention. There's no word on pricing or availability but presumably all will be revealed at the stylish HTC promo event on the 20th.

Netgear's N900 dual-band router hits 900Mbps top speed, pats itself on the back

Stopping just short of bundling its announcement with an "Eye of the Tiger" MP3, Netgear's rolling out the hyperbole carpet for its now available N900. Heralding it as "the most advanced wireless home router," the sleekly-designed $180 box packs six antennas for an extended WiFi range, and is capable of speeds up to 900Mbps -- that's with both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands delivering data at a full 450Mbps. Sure, TRENDnet's already called First! with its own 450Mbps concurrent dual-band device, but the real focus here is on the added extras. In addition to the two USB ports -- capable of 30% faster transfer rates -- Netgear's thrown in a suite of goodies, like its Genie network monitoring application, Live Parental Controls, printer sharing, video stream optimization, DLNA, gigabit wired ethernet, guest access, WPA and WPA2 security protocols, usage meter and, lastly, a shutoff timer. Clearly, this isn't your ordinary wireless router, and that's exactly the company's point.

Netgear unveils NeoTV Streaming Player, takes another shot at the smart TV market

Looks like Netgear is taking what it learned from licensing Roku's tech last year and streamlining its connected TV offerings. With the NeoTV Streaming Player the company is striking out on its own once again and delivering the usual lineup of streaming media (Netflix, YouTube, Vudu, Revision3, Pandora, etc...). On the hardware side you're looking at a glossy black box with a 300Mbps WiFi radio, Ethernet, optical audio out and, of course, HDMI. The NeoTV is available for pre-order now and will start shipping towards the end of the month for $80. And once you get tired of rewatching every episode of Next Generation, you can play a few hands of Blackjack or check out this little thing you may have heard of called The Engadget Show.

VMware Fusion 4 brings full Lion support, wants to make Windows act less like Windows

Leave it to VMware to put the spotlight back on Lion when this is, without a doubt, Windows 8's week. The company just announced Fusion 4, the latest version of its virtualization software, and, as you'd expect, it pledges to play nice with Apple's newly minted OS. In addition to fully supporting Lion features like Spotlight, though, it makes Windows look more like, well, a Mac. The software includes improved support for Expose and Spaces on the Windows side, and adds the ability to use Mission Control and launch Windows apps from Launchpad. Additionally, you can run Lion as a virtual machine within Snow Leopard and VMware makes vague claims about improved performance, 3D graphics and resource-hogging. It'll cost $50 through the end of the year, with the price jumping up to $80 in January. Fittingly enough, VMware picked up on the fact that Apple's moving away from optical drives, and instead chose to ship the software with a USB drive (you can also download it and do the whole drag-and-drop installation thing). Oh, and if you bought the last-gen version of the software on July 20th or later, you'll get the new version gratis.

SanDisk's Memory Vault will store your photos longer than anyone cares

According to a survey commissioned by SanDisk, family photos are the first thing people would save in a house fire, after relatives and pets. Personally, we'd rush for our laptop and let the dog take care of itself, but hey let's get to the point: SanDisk wants to sell you its new Memory Vault. This ruggedized flash drive contains proprietary Chronolock memory management technology that has been subjected to "accelerated temperature cycling tests" to prove it can preserve data uncorrupted for up to 100 years. Maybe the product is a boon to future generations, or maybe it's just a way of convincing people to spend $90 on 16GB of storage instead of picking up a Corsair Flash Survivor for $35.

Gomite Tiltpod magnetic tripod: snapping awkward family photos just got easier

Nothing ruins a Kodak moment faster than taking a timeout to set up a tripod, which is why the folks at Gomite went magnetic when developing its tiny new Tiltpod. Designed for compact cameras or video recorders, magnets enable users to sidestep the whole "screw-in" process that typically eats away precious pre-shot moments. The underside is made of an elusive "grippy material," enabling it to perch easily on rocks, car hoods, bathroom sinks or any other odd place you may want to recall vividly. Kind of like a cheaper version of this guy, the Tiltpod is available online now for a cool $17.95.

Sony's Dash gets a new lease on life, we stop to wonder why

Remember Sony's Dash? That little pseudo tablet powered by Chumby OS that started making the rounds at last year's CES? No, well we almost forgot about it too. But, just as it was finally fading from memory, Sony hit us with an update to the Internet Viewer. Not much has changed, save a rearrangement of the ports and buttons. It's still got the same pile of widgets and channels, but now sports a (very) basic web browser for those with a bit of a masochistic streak. The ability to register your Dash without having to first hook up to a PC is also a welcome addition. The black-only HID-B7 will ship for $130, while the HID-B70 comes in brown, blue and orange while adding a battery to the mix for $170. Both will hit shelves in October

Nyko's $30 Zoom for Kinect now shipping to tiny-roomed gamers worldwide

Kinect ownership means you've got to keep a good ten square feet of space totally free to play in, and that's nearly impossible for many inner-city, bedroom and dorm-room gamers. Fortunately for them, Nyko has developed a solution so simple it's positively genius -- clip-on lenses that reduce the distance the Kinect can see, bringing players closer to the TV. After the break you'll find a video and press release -- but more importantly, the Nyko Zoom is available right now for $29.99 in all good retailers, and some of the bad ones too, probably.

All News Reviews Reviews Steve Ballmer touts 500,000 Windows 8 downloads in less than 12 hours By Donald Melanson posted Sep 14th 2011 at 4:11PM We've already heard that quite a few of you have downloaded Windows 8 since the developer preview became available last night, and it looks like plenty of other folks have as well --- ... 491 Leave A Comment 33 Satechi will LockDown your SATA hard drive, boasts USB 3.0 too By Billy Steele posted Sep 14th 2011 at 3:49PM If you keep close watch over your digital belongings like we do, security is an utmost concern for external storage devices. Now you can keep your valuables under lock-and-key with Satechi's LockDown -- a SATA HDD enclosure that guards data via an encrypted 256 bit protection and allows lightning fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds. Utilizing a touch keypad on an OLED display, the device is only accessible through a 4 to 8 digit passcode -- even if it's connected to a PC or another device. This gives you the ability to keep "your backup data as secure as the data on your personal computer." Pretty sweet, right? The LockDown plays nice with both Mac and PC and is shipping now for $90. Hit that PR link just past the break if you're looking to lock down those precious research papers... see what we did there? READ MORE 59 Leave A Comment 9 Mercedes-Benz debuts B-Class E-Cell Plus EV concept, the suburban limo revisioned By Lydia Leavitt posted Sep 14th 2011 at 3:26PM Family transportation has come a long way since it was all about piling in the back of the humble station wagon -- in particular, we're talking about the new Mercedez-Benz Concept B-Class E-Cell Plus EV that debuted today at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The plug-in series hybrid has a 136-horsepower electric motor with a 62-mile range, and a 67-horsepower, 1.0-liter three cylinder turbocharged gas engine for range-extending capabilities up to 373 miles. At low speeds, the petrol engine charges the lithium-ion batteries. When going faster, it acts on the car's front wheels, while the electric engine also chugs along -- very much like the Chevy Volt. Mercedes promises zero to 62MPH in 11 seconds and top speeds of 93MPH in both battery-only and range-extending modes. No word yet on when this dream ride will be available for family carpools, but eager June Cleavers can check out the photo gallery and full PR after the break. Mercedes-Benz B-Class E-Cell Plus READ MORE Green Autoblog sourceDaimler 30 Leave A Comment 9 Google launches Flight Search service, Kayak shrugs it off (video) By Amar Toor posted Sep 14th 2011 at 3:04PM Google's DOJ-approved acquisition of ITA has finally borne fruit, in the form of Flight Search -- a new tool that aims to streamline the chaos that is online travel booking. The ... Read the full post on alt.engadget.com 97 Leave A Comment 36 Toshiba's Portege Z830 climbs out of Dell's Inspiron 600m at IDF 2011 (video) By Darren Murph posted Sep 14th 2011 at 2:41PM Apple's original MacBook Air may have fit inside a traditional office envelope, but it seems that Intel's got a few tricks up its sleeve, too. Here at IDF 2011, Mooly Eden -- vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group -- ripped a Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook out of a Dell Inspiron 600m. For those unaware, we first touched the former last week, while the M600 saw its big reveal in the early days of 2005. Seems we've come quite a ways in six short years, huh? Toshiba's Portege Z830 climbs out of Dell's Inspiron M600 at IDF 2011 READ MORE 121 Leave A Comment 8 This is what Intel's Haswell microarchitecture looks like (video from IDF) By Darren Murph posted Sep 14th 2011 at 2:22PM Intel already showcased the future of solar-powered computing, but if you're wondering what silicon from 2013 looks like today... well, have a gander! The chip shown above (and in the gallery / videos below) is Intel's Haswell microarchitecture, a platform that is destined to slip into slimmer-than-slim laptops and Ultrabooks of the future. As mentioned yesterday, it's built on 22nm process technology, relies on the company's 3D Tri-gate transistors and should lead to over ten full days of connected standby battery life in mobile devices. So, now you know what it feels like to be in The Twilight Zone. This is what Intel's Haswell microarchitecture looks like READ MORE 75 Leave A Comment 12 IDT's power-saving Panel Self Refresh tech coming to laptops, Ultrabooks and tablets (video) By Darren Murph posted Sep 14th 2011 at 1:51PM We aren't talking Pixel Qi-style savings or anything, but then again, IDT's not asking you to ditch the conventional LCD your retinas refuse to step away from. The company's Panel Self Refresh technology just got a major shot in the arm here at IDF, with the introduction of the world's first Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) 1.3-compliant Timing Controller with integrated PSR technology. A lot of technobabble, sure, but here's the lowdown: with this stuff in the mix, most users will see upwards of 45 minutes of battery gain, as the panels don't require constant refreshing. Granted, power savings are only seen with static images on-screen, and you'll need a PSR-enabled graphics processor to take advantage. The good news, however, is that Intel seems to be into the idea of using this stuff to boost the overall battery life of Chipzilla-based machines, so it shouldn't be too long before it starts popping up in laptops and Ultrabooks. As to how the magic actually works? IDT's PSR technology "identifies a static image and stores it local to the TCON in an integrated frame buffer; then, it seamlessly displays the image from the local frame buffer allowing the eDP main link and a majority of the GPU functions to be powered-down, resulting in significant power savings." Have a look at the unveiling video just after the break. IDT's power-saving Panel Self Refresh tech shown at IDF 2011 READ MORE sourceIDT 44 Leave A Comment 7 AMD Fusion tablets running Windows 8 at Build 2011: hands-on with video By Christopher Trout posted Sep 14th 2011 at 1:24PM Hands-On You've already seen our in-depth hands-on with Samsung's Series 7 Slate, boasting an Intel processor and running Windows 8, and now it's time to give the other guys a little love. We got a chance to sit down with the folks at AMD, masters of the Fusion APU, before the Expo doors opened here at Build, and it would be an understatement to say that they're excited about getting their x86 chipsets running on Windows 8 machines. As with Samsung's Slate, AMD was showing off a pair of slates we've seen before, specifically the Acer Iconia Tab W500, running on the company's C-50 APU, and MSI's WinPad 110W, sporting the Z-01 APU. This is the first the company's seen of the Metro UI running on its chipsets, and like them, we're impressed with its performance. You'll get the same speedy boot-up here, as well as fast and fluid touch navigation. Unfortunately, they aren't giving up details on future devices, but we should see Brazos powering Windows 8 tablets, desktops , and notebooks in due time. For a look at AMD powering Windows 8, check out our video after break. AMD Fusion tablets running Windows 8 at Build 2011: hands-on READ MORE 538 Leave A Comment 40 Intel: Thunderbolt coming to PCs, prototype shown at IDF 2011 (update: video!) By Darren Murph posted Sep 14th 2011 at 1:03PM Guess what, Wintel loyalists? "Apple's" Thunderbolt I/O port is coming your way. If you'll recall, Thunderbolt was actually built with Intel's collaboration (Light Peak, anyone?), and sensibly, the chip giant is now making it possible for the port to appear on non-Mac machines. The news was just broken here at IDF, where a Haswell-based machine was briefly teased with a heretofore unpossible T-bolt port. Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, was on-stage to showcase six pre-production Ultrabook designs (all based on 3rd generation Intel Core processors), but stopped short of telling us exactly when the Thunderbolt I/O port would make its debut on commercially available rigs (Acer and ASUS are onboard for a 2012 launch!). Naturally, we're hoping it's sooner (tomorrow) rather than later (the 2013 launch of Haswell). Update: Video of the unveiling is now embedded after the break! Intel: Thunderbolt coming to PCs, prototype shown at IDF 2011 READ MORE sourceIntel 519 Leave A Comment 29 Windows 8 BSoD ditches confusing error codes for uninformative frowny face By Terrence O'Brien posted Sep 14th 2011 at 12:59PM As with any version of Windows, the Metro-slathered Win 8 has one of those oh so familiar Blue Screen of Death thingies. But, this time around, there's a change. Gone are the confusing ... 615 Leave A Comment 61 Windows Server 8 and Azure platform introduced, Metro-style app building starts today

Server and Tools Business President Satya Nadella, amongst others, took the stage at Build today in order to showcase something a bit less consumer-facing: Windows Server 8 and the revised Windows Azure platform. Fret not, though -- this all plays a vital role in how you'll be enjoying Windows 8 in the months to come. A Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview will be made available to coders starting today, enabling devs to concoct Metro-style applications with HTML 5, JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic and C++. We're told that the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview is available today for Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and will be made available to the public on Friday. Microsoft also announced that Server 8 would provide multi-tenant infrastructure for cloud services, while the Azure Marketplace would expand to 25 new nations in early October.

IDT's power-saving Panel Self Refresh tech coming to laptops, Ultrabooks and tablets

We aren't talking Pixel Qi-style savings or anything, but then again, IDT's not asking you to ditch the conventional LCD your retinas refuse to step away from. The company's Panel Self Refresh technology just got a major shot in the arm here at IDF, with the introduction of the world's first Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) 1.3-compliant Timing Controller with integrated PSR technology. A lot of technobabble, sure, but here's the lowdown: with this stuff in the mix, most users will see upwards of 45 minutes of battery gain, as the panels don't require constant refreshing.