Windows 8 Booting Too Fast?
One of the gripes folks have had with Windows for . . . well, forever, is that it takes too long to boot. Most of us have probably had moments where we decided against starting up the PC to look something up online because we know we’ll spend less time doing the search to get what we want than waiting for the ability to launch a browser on a Windows PC that’s powered down. Microsoft took those issues to heart when developing Windows 8, and was apparently too successful at achieving its goal for lower boot times.
Current builds of Windows 8 are booting so fast, says User Experience Program Manager Chris Clark, that it’s impossible to enter a PC’s BIOS config or get into a diagnostic startup mode. Clark wrote in the Building Windows 8 blog recently that total boot time on SSD-equipped PCs is running less than 7 seconds, and the window for getting into the BIOS or a special startup mode closes after the first 2 or 3 of those seconds.
As such, Microsoft has revised Windows 8’s boot options menu to include a few quick, helpful options such as Troubleshoot, Use Another Operating System, and Use A Device, and has added an Advanced Options screen that makes it easy to get to UEFI settings, System Restore, a command prompt, and so on.
Yahoo! Axis Might Change The Way
You Search
When was the last time you were blown away by something new from Yahoo!? If you’re like a lot of people, the last time you heard any news from Yahoo! that seemed big was when the company made a search pact with Microsoft, but Yahoo! recently launched a new mobile browser and desktop browser plugin called Axis (axis.yahoo.com) that is actually pretty cool. Axis’ appeal is twofold: First, it blows up the search results page paradigm. As you type keywords in the search field, Axis provides instant visual results in the form of previews of pages related to your search that you can scroll through and click for quick navigation, and if you’re using the Axis plug-in for your favorite desktop browser, Axis resides in a pop-up bar along the bottom of your screen so that all of your browser tabs are actual pages you want to visit, not pages
full of search results. This is a subtle but welcome change. Second, Axis synchronizes your search experience on all your devices, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones, so that if you are searching for something on your phone and you want to go back to it on your PC at home or in the office, you simply click or tap the appropriate Continue From Device button in the Axis interface, and whatever searches you had up to now appear on your PC.
Opera 12 Beta Takes A Bow
If you’re a fan of the Opera browser and are in the mood for something new, head over to www.opera.com/browser/next and grab the beta for Wahoo, aka Opera 12. Opera Software says 12 is “both smarter and faster than its predecessors,” and boasts on its laundry list of new features, including especially the addition of themes and the creation of a separate process for plug-ins. Themes, as you can probably guess, are graphical backgrounds that you can download and/or create and apply to dramatically change the look of your browser. Creating a separate process for browser plug-ins prevents them from
taking your browser down with them if they crash. Opera also says it optimized the 12 beta’s network SSL code and gave it smarter tab loading to accelerate startup and shutdown, and added support for the getUserMedia API for enhanced camera support. Opera 12 will also have an improved interface for rightto-
left scripts, and as a result will support Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Hebrew. New 64-bit versions and improved HTML5 support are also on the docket, so check it out.
Current builds of Windows 8 are booting so fast, says User Experience Program Manager Chris Clark, that it’s impossible to enter a PC’s BIOS config or get into a diagnostic startup mode. Clark wrote in the Building Windows 8 blog recently that total boot time on SSD-equipped PCs is running less than 7 seconds, and the window for getting into the BIOS or a special startup mode closes after the first 2 or 3 of those seconds.
As such, Microsoft has revised Windows 8’s boot options menu to include a few quick, helpful options such as Troubleshoot, Use Another Operating System, and Use A Device, and has added an Advanced Options screen that makes it easy to get to UEFI settings, System Restore, a command prompt, and so on.
Yahoo! Axis Might Change The Way
When was the last time you were blown away by something new from Yahoo!? If you’re like a lot of people, the last time you heard any news from Yahoo! that seemed big was when the company made a search pact with Microsoft, but Yahoo! recently launched a new mobile browser and desktop browser plugin called Axis (axis.yahoo.com) that is actually pretty cool. Axis’ appeal is twofold: First, it blows up the search results page paradigm. As you type keywords in the search field, Axis provides instant visual results in the form of previews of pages related to your search that you can scroll through and click for quick navigation, and if you’re using the Axis plug-in for your favorite desktop browser, Axis resides in a pop-up bar along the bottom of your screen so that all of your browser tabs are actual pages you want to visit, not pages
full of search results. This is a subtle but welcome change. Second, Axis synchronizes your search experience on all your devices, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones, so that if you are searching for something on your phone and you want to go back to it on your PC at home or in the office, you simply click or tap the appropriate Continue From Device button in the Axis interface, and whatever searches you had up to now appear on your PC.
Opera 12 Beta Takes A Bow
If you’re a fan of the Opera browser and are in the mood for something new, head over to www.opera.com/browser/next and grab the beta for Wahoo, aka Opera 12. Opera Software says 12 is “both smarter and faster than its predecessors,” and boasts on its laundry list of new features, including especially the addition of themes and the creation of a separate process for plug-ins. Themes, as you can probably guess, are graphical backgrounds that you can download and/or create and apply to dramatically change the look of your browser. Creating a separate process for browser plug-ins prevents them from
taking your browser down with them if they crash. Opera also says it optimized the 12 beta’s network SSL code and gave it smarter tab loading to accelerate startup and shutdown, and added support for the getUserMedia API for enhanced camera support. Opera 12 will also have an improved interface for rightto-
left scripts, and as a result will support Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Hebrew. New 64-bit versions and improved HTML5 support are also on the docket, so check it out.
