I personally was very impressed with Window 7 and it's fresh new look and feel from that of Windows Vista which was a failure for the most part. Let's hope Windows 8 continues on with the Windows 7 tradition of being fresh, quick and with a smaller amount of overhead to hardware ratio than it's predecessors.
Faster Boot Times:
A blogger called Francisco Martin Garcia said the following on his blog:
We can expect some interesting functionality that includes USB 3.0, and Bluetooth 3.0 support, video recognition and 'instant on' booting – which will obviously be seen as a response to Google's Chrome OS. One of Chrome OS' big selling points is the speed of boot-up, and Microsoft is keen to bring the functionality to Windows.
"Windows 8 PC's turn on fast, nearly instantly in some cases, and are ready to work without any long or unexpected delays," said the document.
It also states, "When customers want to check e-mail, sports scores, or play media they love to reach for their PCs because they can get to what they want quickly."
Connect with Kinect:
Another key addition will feature Kinect – the next generation motion sensor video technology that is being brought to the Xbox 360 in the near future.
"Windows 8 could detect my presence and log me automatically," adds the document. This latter nugget of information is intriguing – with person recognition one of the well-appreciated functions of Kinect. Microsoft has long talked up the fact that Kinect tech could be brought to Windows – and there will now be hope that it will be arriving as soon as the next generation of the operating system.
Windows Native PDF Reader:
Windows 8 is also set to feature a native PDF reader, meaning PC owners will no longer need to install a third-party app such as Adobe Reader to view PDFs. The new PDF reader is known as 'Modern Reader', and uses the new AppX application package type, which is similar to that in Windows Phone 7 and likely to be used in Windows Phone 8.
Windows 8 Mulitmedia:
Better media playback and recording, but it will balance using hardware acceleration to save battery life and using the CPU when it gives a better result.
Audio will use hardware acceleration more because that does improve battery life. There will be post-processing to take out blur, noise and shakey video filmed on a phone or webcam, and support for more codecs including AVC and as-yet-undetermined 3D video codecs (stereoscopic3D support is coming, for games and for 3D movies in Media Center, but there are format issues).
Microsoft talks about sharing 'with nearby devices'; one way that will work is adding the Play To option currently in Windows Media Player to the browser for HTML 5 audio and video content, so you can play it on any device that supports DLNA, another is APIs to let other software do the same.
Improved Task Manager:
Task manager will make it easier to see why an app might not be performing; here the Zune software is using all the network bandwidth to download podcasts, so video in the browser keeps pausing. We hope the white on black isn't the final design!
The Windows pre-boot recovery environment will be simpler, combining the safe mode and 'last known good' options into one interface. It will use what Microsoft calls 'superboot' to remove malware and rootkits
If you have to reset your PC, Windows 8 will restore "all the files settings and even the applications" although you'll have to go to the Windows Store to download apps and get a list of apps that didn't come from the store, so it's not clear how automatic this will actually be.
Windows 8 Release Date:
From what I've seen online several sources are speculating that a release for the "Holiday Season" 2011 is in the cards. I'd epxect to see an oficial release in late 2011.
References:
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/windows-8-leak-hints-at-kinect-functionality-699604
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/windows-8-everything-you-need-to-know-701764
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