Microsoft Has Been Watching, and It Says You’re Getting Used to Windows 8
Data collected from some users of the operating system suggest people are adjusting well to the radical departure from previous designs, says the company.
Contributors
Tom Simonite
Follow @twitterapiIT Editor, Software & Hardware
I’m MIT Technology Review’s IT editor for hardware and software and enjoy a diverse diet of algorithms, Internet, and human-computer interaction with chips on the side. Working in our San Francisco office, I cover new ideas about what computers can do for us, whether they spring from tech giants, new startups, or academic labs.
My journey to the West Coast started in a small English town called Wantage and took in the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and five years writing and editing technology news coverage at New Scientist magazine.
Tom Simonite's Stories
Topics
The Woman Charged with Making Windows 8 Succeed
In a Q&A, Julie Larson-Green explains why Microsoft felt it was necessary to rethink an operating system used by 1.2 billion people.
Will Dropbox Add a Music Player to its File Store?
The file-syncing company has bought a startup that streams a person's music collection over the Internet.
The iPhone Gets an Answer to Google Now
Siri gets some competition from an app that offers answers to search queries you haven’t even made yet.
A Personal Assistant Created from the Crowd by Smart Software
A service called Premier acts like a single smart assistant, on call 24 hours a day. It’s actually made from an ever-changing crowd of casual workers.
Custom Chips Could Be the Shovels in a Bitcoin Gold Rush
Devotees of the digital currency are ratcheting up their technology in a race to generate new coins.
Leaping Into the Gesture-Control Era
Technology that accurately tracks finger motions could revolutionize desktop and mobile computing.
How Google Plans to Find the UnGoogleable
The company wants to improve its mobile search services by automatically delivering information you wouldn’t think to search for online.
Questions Surround Software that Adapts to Students
By carefully logging students’ every action online, a company called Knewton says, it can personalize questions and lessons to help people learn faster. Skeptics say that’s not proven.
Google’s Glass Gets a Competitor
A company already in the business of selling wearable displays will launch its own consumer gadget next year—but the format is still unproven.
