Cheap, fast 'paper strip' test for Ebola, other infections, steps closer

Scientists working in the field of man made biology are usually bringing together science, anatomist and precessing to understand and content this ins and outs regarding natural living with brand new ways to attain remarkable strides. A pair of research released with Cell phone demonstrate just how advances in this subject could some day lead to cheap, dependable diagnostics for ailments such as Ebola -- checks that may be carried out rapidly inside the subject using only sheds regarding blood vessels or saliva with whitening strips regarding paper stuck along with man made biology circuits.

Inside the primary review, this experts, from Harvard University's Wyss Initiate for Biological Influenced Architectural with Boston ma, MUM, summarize how they brought lab-testing capacity to pocket-sized slips regarding paper by simply embedding them along with man made gene sites. Additionally, they clarify how they developed numerous diagnostics, "including sugar devices and strain-specific Ebola malware devices. "

Till not long ago, improvement with man made biology continues to be hampered since experts have got merely had the oppertunity to formulate man made mechanisms inside existing tissues.

Nevertheless, the study explains what sort of Wyss workforce had taken a huge leap by simply developing a process exactly where they could design man made designs regarding natural mechanisms away from tissues.
Paper-based, man made biology methods can be freeze dried out and kept

Medical professional. Keith Pardee, steer publisher of the primary paper and staff members scientist from Wyss, explains:

"We've harnessed the genetic machinery of cells and embedded them in the fiber matrix of paper, which can then be freeze dried for storage and transport - we can now take synthetic biology out of the lab and use it anywhere to better understand our health and the environment."

Medical professional. Pardee and friends have got built numerous paper-based diagnostics and biosensors. These integrate proteins that fluoresce and change coloring to indicate these are working.

Once freeze-dried, this paper-based methods can be kept for a year; these are triggered with the help of water.

The tools doubles inside the lab in order to save time and expense compared with traditional procedures that make use of existing tissues and cells.

"Where it would normally take 2 or 3 days to confirm a power tool inside of a full time income mobile or portable, this can be carried out utilizing a man made biology paper-based software with as few as ninety moments, " affirms Medical professional. Pardee.

Inside their review, he or she and his or her friends summarize how they examined numerous paper-based man made biology methods. They triggered innate buttons, easily made and produced difficult gene circuits, and programmed diagnostics that will check for antibiotic-resistant microbes and strain-specific Ebola malware.
'Toehold switch' employed to build Ebola sensor

The Wyss workforce developed this Ebola sensor by using some sort of "toehold swap, " a new process for curbing gene term that's very adaptable and remarkably programmable. This is the issue of the second review.

The toehold swap was initially meant to function on the inside existing tissues, though the workforce were able to transport it's function for the freeze-dried paper procedure.

The toehold swap can be programmed to modify about the output of an distinct protein following just discovering a great RNA trademark regarding every variety. RNA signatures are usually sequences regarding innate program code that can be used to distinguish a broad choice of infectious agents, including microbes, infections, yeast and parasites.

The workforce affirms it is also probable to url numerous toehold buttons with each other, developing a difficult signal that could be programmed to carry out a few methods, for instance detect some sort of pathogen after which produce a suitable remedy.

Peng Yin, associate mentor inside the Team regarding Techniques Chemistry and biology from Harvard Health-related College and Wyss Primary Faculty Fellow member, can be senior publisher of the second paper. He explains that traditional man made biology simply just normally takes recent natural components and rewires the crooks to attain a new goal. But this kind of complicates accuracy and efficiency.

Alternatively, while toehold swap can be motivated by nature, it can be totally re-designed from damage, he or she contributes, observing that the review explains how they produced a device that "is a truly 'synthetic' gene regulator along with 40-fold far better capacity to control gene term in comparison with traditional regulators. "

Inside Sept 2014, Health-related Media Nowadays mastered just how scientists are working with methods to deal with drug-resistant pathogens with their own "gene-editing" process. In a paper released with Characteristics Biotechnology, this workforce explains how they utilised CRISPR -- some sort of gene-editing process that microbes make use of to defend against invasion by simply infections -- to a target this superbugs independently.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD.

source : Here

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Caramel Apples Recipe

Caramel Apples Recipe

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Cook time: 40 minutes
• Yield: Makes 6 caramel apples.

You can undoubtedly twofold the formula, in the event that you do, utilize a 4-quart pot to make the caramel sauce.

On the off chance that you don't have admittance to molasses, you can substitute the one mug of white sugar and tablespoon of molasses with one container and one tablespoon of dull tan sugar, pressed.

Why the corn syrup? Corn syrup is a "reverse sugar" that will help keep the sugar in the caramel from solidifying. It likewise serves to mollify the caramel.

Fruits from the store regularly have a wax covering on them which ought to be uprooted before endeavoring to layer them in caramel. To uproot you can plunge the fruits in bubbling water blended with a sprinkle of vinegar for a couple of seconds, evacuate and altogether dry.

Spare Recipe

Fixings

1 container white granulated sugar

1/2 measure (1 stick) unsalted spread

3/4 container overwhelming whipping cream

1/2 container dull corn syrup

1 Tbsp dim molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla concentrate

1/2 teaspoon salt (preclude if utilizing salted margarine)

6 strong candy sticks or chopsticks

6 medium fruits (flushed and tapped dry, room temperature)

Grouped designs, (for example, hacked nuts, cleaved raisins, small scale M&m's and confection sprinkles)

Supplies required one exact sweet thermometer.

System

join caramel add-ins and hotness on medium low until dissolved brush drawbacks with cake brush

1 Place sugar, margarine, cream, corn syrup, molasses, vanilla, and salt (discard if utilizing salted spread) in a thick-bottomed 3-4 quart pot. Warm on medium to medium low high temperature and blend gradually with a wooden spoon until the spread has dissolved and the sugar has broken down. In the event that you see sugar precious stones on the edge of the skillet, brush them down with a wet cake brush.

Bring to a moving bubble Pour hot caramel sauce into metal dish

2 Let the caramel mixture go to a moving bubble, altering the high temperature so that the caramel doesn't bubble over the dish. Keep on mixing in a moderate figure-eight example with a wooden spoon. Screen the temperature of the caramel with a treat thermometer. At the point when the temperature of the mixture achieves 240°f (after around 15 minutes or thereabouts of bubbling), expel from hotness and put into a metal dish.

Let the hot caramel mixture sit in the dish until the temperature cools to simply beneath 200°f, at which indicate you are prepared dip the pieces of fruit.

Push stays into pieces of fruit through center Sticks in fruits, prepared to dunk into caramel sauce

3 While the caramel sauce is cooking and cooling, line a heating sheet with either Silpat or buttered aluminum foil. Embed the sticks (either candy stays, thick wooden sticks, or chopsticks) into the core of the fruits through the stem end.

plunge fruit in caramel sauce swirl the fruit in the caramel sauce and haul out, letting the overabundance sauce trickle off

4 When the caramel sauce has cooled sufficiently, meeting expectations each one in turn, dunk the fruits into the sauce. Swirl every fruit around in the sauce so that the caramel sauce totally layers the fruit, with the exception of the extremely top close to the stick. Pull the fruit up from the sauce and let the abundance caramel tenderly dribble go into the vessel. Place the covered fruit onto the lined preparing sheet. Some caramel sauce will structure a little pool at the base of every fruit. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Caramel pieces of fruit cooling overlap the caramel that has pooled at the bottom of the fruits back onto the fruits

5 Once the caramel has chilled a couple of minutes, expel from the cooler and press the caramel that has pooled at the bottom of the fruits up against the side of the pieces of fruit. On the off chance that you are utilizing coatings, for example, sprinkles or slashed nuts, roll the caramel fruits in them now. At that point furnish a proportional payback to the icebox and chill for at any rate an alternate hour.

In the event that giving as endowments, after the fruits have totally chilled, wrap them in plastic wrap.

source : http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/caramel_apples/

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Apple releases OS X Yosemite

The free upgrade runs on all Macs sold since 2009, as well as some even older models 

Apple today (16/10/2014)  launched OS X 10.10, aka Yosemite, as a free upgrade for most Mac owners.

Mac users running last year's Mavericks, 2012's Mountain Lion, 2011's Lion and even 2009's Snow Leopard are able to download Yosemite from the Mac App Store starting today. The no-older-than-Snow-Leopard limitation was due to the App Store, the only distribution channel for Yosemite; versions of OS X that preceded Snow Leopard cannot access the online mart.

During a news conference today -- which Apple live-streamed -- Craig Federighi, who leads iOS and OS X development and has taken the roll of Jerry Lewis to Cook's Dean Martin straight man, spent considerable time summarizing the new features of Yosemite.

He also boasted that a million users had registered for the public beta, the first OS preview from Apple since 2000.

Of the new features in Yosemite, the most prominent -- the Continuity collection that includes task hand-off from an iOS device to a Mac, or vice versa, requires iOS 8.1, which Apple will release on Monday, Oct. 20.

The free Yosemite will be accompanied by upgrades to the also-free iWork suite -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- which are also available today, said Federighi.

OS X Yosemite tips the virtual scale at 5.2GB, slightly less than last year's Mavericks but still a massive download for customers with slower or metered Internet connections. It can be downloaded by choosing "Software Update" from the Apple menu at the far left of a Mac's menu bar.

Macs compatible with Yosemite include iMacs as old as mid-2007, MacBook Pro notebooks from late 2007 on and MacBook Air laptops from late 2008 going forward. All Macs sold from 2009 and later are able to run Yosemite, said Apple.

source : http://www.computerworld.com/article/2834999/apple-releases-os-x-yosemite.html

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Honey Mustard Chicken Recipe

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Cook time: 45 minutes
• Yield: Serves 4-6.

If you don't want to eat skin-on chicken, still cook the dish with the skin-on, even if you don't eat it. The skin will protect the meat from drying out.

Ingredients

• 1/4 to 1/3 cup smooth Dijon mustard
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 pounds chicken thighs (or legs)
• Salt
• 2 sprigs rosemary (or a generous sprinkling of dried rosemary)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, mix mustard with the honey, and olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and taste. Add more salt and mustard until you get the flavor where you want it.
2 Salt the chicken lightly and lay the pieces skin-side up in a shallow casserole dish. Spoon the honey mustard sauce over the chicken. Place the rosemary sprigs in between the pieces of chicken.
3 Bake for 45 minutes, or until the thighs read 175° on a meat thermometer, or the juices run clear when the meat is pierced with a knife. Remove the casserole pan from the oven, use a spoon to spoon off any excess chicken fat that has rendered during the cooking.
Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper over the chicken before you serve.

source : http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/honey_mustard_chicken/

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Free at last: After Windows 10, consumers won't pay for updates or upgrades

Ironically, businesses will probably have to pay to keep Windows from changing

 

Microsoft will have no choice but to give consumers free Windows upgrades once it launches Windows 10 and kicks off its fast-fast-fast tempo, an analyst asserted.

"If Microsoft wants consumers to update and keep up to date, it really means that Microsoft is going to have to give those consumers those updates for free. There's really no other way to do it," said Michael Silver of Gartner at the research firm's annual technology conference.
"A consumer isn't going to give Microsoft a credit card and say, 'Charge me for a new release whenever one comes out,'" Silver added. "It's very likely that consumer releases will be free."
That will affect Microsoft's bottom line: With Windows 10 expected to be the nameplate for the OS for years longer than the usual three-year cycle between major upgrades -- from Windows 7 to Windows 8, say -- free means that consumers will never again have to pay to upgrade their PC's OS.
A constant trickle of free updates and upgrades will also put computer makers in a bind, as historically they have relied on new editions to spark sales, particularly to consumers.
Silver's argument that Windows 10, if not free itself, must offer free updates to consumers, came during a 45-min. presentation where he and a colleague, Stephen Kleynhans, discussed the future of Office and Windows before a standing-room-only crowd at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2014. The research firm lets anyone view up to three on-demand video recordings of conference sessions free of charge, including the one with Silver and Kleynhans.
The two put Microsoft's Windows 10 and Microsoft's promise of a steady stream of updates in context for businesses, which have shied away from Windows 8 and are being coaxed back into the fold with promises that Windows 10 will be all that its predecessor wasn't.
"A lot of enterprises were expressing concern that they couldn't keep up with that faster cadence [of Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.1 Update]," said Kleynhans. "So, Microsoft decided to change things about the cadence. They've come up with a new, new cadence. Because you couldn't keep up with annual updates, they're going to go to monthly updates."
That last line got a laugh from the audience, but it was more dark humor than levity: Businesses have balked at an accelerated update cadence. Microsoft got an earful last April from IT professionals, for example, when it told them they had just 30 days to install Windows 8.1 Update.
Microsoft has, however, made allowances for corporations. Rather than adopt what Silver and Kleynhans called "consumer speed" updating -- a tempo that could be as frequent as monthly -- businesses will be able to delay deployment with a pair of alternate tracks.
The most conservative of those tracks, which Gartner has labeled "long-term servicing," will be of interest almost exclusively to enterprises.
"They're going to introduce the concept of a long-term serving update," said Kleynhans. "They'll take all of those [consumer speed updates] and roll them into a single release and that will be a stake in the ground. That stake in the ground will stay there for 10 years or so, we expect. And you'll be able to stay on that stake in the ground, that long-term servicing update, for as long as you need to. It will continue to get security updates, but features are going to be pretty much locked down and not change."

For those who have been around Windows a while, the long-term servicing update cadence is analogous to how Windows was dealt out pre-Windows 8.
According to Silver and others, that slowest temp will also impact how Microsoft profits from its venerable OS: Corporate customers will have to pay for it.
"We expect that organizations that want the longest-term support, the one with no changes, are going to have to pay for that by buying a Windows Enterprise Upgrade license," said Silver in an interview last week. "They going to have to pay more."
Wes Miller, of Directions on Microsoft, wasn't as certain as Silver about Microsoft charging for an unchanging Windows. "I'm curious about that, but I think it's definitely possible," Miller said in a recent interview. "We saw that with XP, support isn't free."
"The ironic thing is that enterprises used to buy Software Assurance and pay a fee to stay current," Silver said. "Now they'll pay a fee to stay static."

Source : http://www.computerworld.com/article/2825116/free-at-last-after-windows-10-consumers-wont-pay-for-updates-or-upgrades.html

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Dell pushes laptop chip clock speed to 4.4GHz in Alienware 18

Dell is cranking up laptop performance with an overclocked 4.4GHz Intel Core i7 chip in its new Alienware 18 laptop, which is targeted at gamers. The company on Thursday also announced an Alienware 17 laptop with optional Core i7 chips with clock speeds surpassing the 4.0GHz threshold. Processors running at that frequency are rare in laptops, though they can be found in gaming desktops.
Higher clock speeds boost PC performance, and gamers typically overclock CPUs to run faster. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices consistently crank up desktop CPU clock speeds in an ongoing battle to gain the desktop performance crown.
Over the past decade, chip makers reverted to adding more cores instead of cranking up clock speeds to balance system performance and power consumption. Laptop chips mostly operate at frequencies between 1.4GHz and 3GHz, and most users won't need 4GHz laptops. But gamers love the extra performance to run intense games.
Dell overclocked the fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4940MX processor in the Alienware 18 to run at 4.4GHz, making it the chip maker's fastest mobile processor. An optional Core i7-4910MQ processor in Alienware 17 has a frequency of 4.1GHz.
The 4.4GHz chip could generate a lot of heat, and Dell did some tweaking to fit the processor in the laptop's small frame.
"Alienware engineers really got creative and developed a new thermal solution to ensure reliable and cool operation in such a small system," Intel said in a blog entry.
The laptops use chips based on the Haswell microarchitecture.
The customizable Alienware 17, which has a 17.3-inch screen, starts at US$1,399, and is also available with slower Core processors and an Nvidia graphics card. A 3D display is optional.
The Alienware 18, which has an 18.4-inch screen, is priced starting at $2,099. It supports dual-graphics Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices graphics cards.
The laptops support 32GB of RAM. Battery life of the laptops wasn't immediately available, but expect it to be just a few hours.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

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Hot chocolate may prevent memory decline

Researchers at Harvard Medical School recommend drinking two glasses of hot chocolate a day may keep the mind solid and forestall memory decrease in more seasoned individuals by saving blood stream in living up to expectations territories of the cerebrum.

They expound on their discoveries online in the August seventh issue of Neurology.

The group was exploring the impact of cocoa utilization on speculation and memory execution, and something many refer to as neurovascular coupling, where blood stream in the cerebrum changes because of nearby mind movement.

Farzaneh A. Sorond, lead creator and part of the American Academy of Neurology, told the press:

"As distinctive regions of the mind require more vitality to finish their errands, they additionally require more noteworthy blood stream. This relationship, called neurovascular coupling, may assume a paramount part in maladies, for example, Alzheimer's."

For their examination, the group enlisted 60 without dementia more seasoned individuals of normal age 73 and solicited them to drink two mugs from hot cocoa a day for 30 days.

A large portion of the members drank hot cocoa high in cell reinforcement flavanol, while the other half drank flavanol-poor hot cocoa. (There is generous confirmation that expending cocoa flavanols helps flow and heart wellbeing.)

The members were asked not to expend whatever other items containing chocolate amid the study.

The group tried the members' memory and speculation aptitudes prior and then afterward utilizing a set of standard tests.

Utilizing ultrasound, they additionally measured neurovascular coupling (the blood stream reaction to mind action) as the members finished the mental tests.

At the begin of the study, 18 of the 60 members had debilitated neurovascular coupling. Before the end of the study, it had enhanced by 8.3%.

These members additionally enhanced their scores on a working memory velocity test. At the begin of the study, it took them 167 seconds to finish the test, while at the end they destroyed it 116 seconds.

In members with normal neurovascular coupling at the begin of the study, there was no change either in blood stream measures or working memory.

A subset of 24 members additionally experienced MRI outputs to search for modest territories of harm in the white matter of the mind. These can happen when there is a confinement in blood stream.

The MRI outputs demonstrated that the members with debilitated neurovascular coupling were the ones destined to have these little zones of cerebrum harm.

There was no contrast between the members who drank flavanol-rich cocoa and the ones who drank flavanol-poor cocoa.

In their study paper, Sorond and partners close:

"There is a strong correlation between neurovascular coupling and cognitive function, and both can be improved by regular cocoa consumption in individuals with baseline impairments. Better neurovascular coupling is also associated with greater white matter structural integrity."

In a publication going with the group's study report, Paul B. Rosenberg, an Alzheimer's master at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, says the study is a paramount first step, however:

"More work is required to demonstrate a connection between cocoa, blood stream issues and cognitive decrease."

An examination survey of 20 trials that was distributed in The Cochrane Library in 2012, found that expending dull chocolate or cocoa may diminish circulatory strain by a little sum.

source : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264551.php

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Google's Physical Web wants to link all the smart 'things'

Google has divulged another undertaking called the Physical Web, which it portrays as "a methodology to unleash the center super force of the Web: collaboration on interest."

What sort of connection on interest? From the subtle elements given, exchange between a cell phone prepared client and suitably modified brilliant gadgets. "Individuals ought to have the capacity to stroll up to any brilliant gadget - a candy machine, a notice, a toy, a transport stop, a rental auto - and not need to download an application first [to interact]. Everything ought to be simply a tap away."

The center thought is to make a standard by which keen gadgets can apportion Urls to other close-by gadgets. For instance, stopping meters could give a URL that connections to a tap-to-pay framework, or a transport stop could give a connection to an up-to-the-moment course plan.

The expert presentation report for the Physical Web, as gave on the Github webpage to the venture, goes into further detail. One key segment is that the receipt of anything telecasted is naturally completely detached. "No proactive notices," the documentation says. "The client will just see a rundown of close-by gadgets when they ask." in principle, somebody could compose a customer that heartily tells clients as a matter of course, however the thought is to situated a decent, non-obtrusive illustration for potential future designers.

A specialized review of the Physical Web depicts how Urls are telecast to gadgets by means of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). As presently concocted, there isn't much room in the showed parcel for the URL itself - a most extreme of 18 bytes - so a URL shortener or comparable administration would be required. A verification of-idea customer, composed for Android and ios, gives the client a rundown of close-by gadgets television in this manner, sorted by sign quality.

Scott Jenson, who drafted the diagram (and whatever remains of the Physical Web documentation), notes there may be numerous approaches to telecast the information. BLE is utilized within this specific incarnation of Physical Web simply because of its omnipresence in cell phones. "This ought not be the main remote arrangement," he notes, "however it is the least demanding to use right now so we can test and model this framework."

source : http://www.infoworld.com/article/2690878/internet-of-things/google-weaves-physical-web-for-on-demand-interaction-with-iot-devices.html

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Chicken and plum sauce stir-fry

LOW IN SATURATES...especially important if
you have high cholesterol

PREP 10 min COOK 5 min SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS
• 325g medium egg noodles
• 1tsp sesame or olive oil
• 100g green beans, trimmed and halved
• 100g sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 175g broccoli, trimmed and cut into 4cm lengths
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 400g chicken breast fillets, cut into thin strips
• 5tbsp plum sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• ½ bunch of fresh coriander, to garnish

METHOD

1 Cook the noodles according to the pack instructions, then drain.
2 Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick frying pan and add the oil. Add all the veg and the chicken and stir-fry for 3–4 min until the chicken is golden and cooked through.
3 Stir through the plum sauce, lime juice and drained noodles
and toss to combine. Scatter with the coriander and serve.

PER SERVING
• 264kcal • 13g sugar • 43.5g protein • 2.6g fibre • 3.1g fat
• 0.9g salt • 0.8g saturates • 138mg calcium • 15.1g carbs
• 1.8mg iron

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A First Look at Microsoft's Windows 10

SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft introduced Windows 10 here on Tuesday as the successor to Windows 8, with an emphasis on going back to basics.
The operating system formerly code named Threshold is still in its very early stages, but Redmond has built enough new features into its prototype all-devices software platform to generate some buzz. Those include a revamped Start menu, some smooth new multi-tasking tools, and better modern app display parameters for full-screen PCs. From a technical perspective, the most interesting addition is probably virtual desktops, which let you run independent, partitioned desktops at the same time—to keep business separate from pleasure, for example.


I got a chance to tool around a bit with Windows 10 at Microsoft's small press gathering here, and also got some eyes-on demos from Microsoft reps. I'll give you my impressions in a second, but first, a quick rundown on what Windows 10 is and what it isn't.
The Beginning of the Beginning
The important thing to know is that this isn't a finished operating system. Windows 10 in its current incarnation isn't even the beginning of the end of the beginning of what we'll eventually load onto our PCs, tablets, and other devices sometime in mid-2015.
Microsoft is releasing what it calls a technical preview build on Wednesday. That barebones version of what will eventually become Windows 10 will be available to the public for download at preview.windows.com.
The idea here is to get Windows users—and crucially for Redmond at this stage, its enterprise customers—to test out the new software and tick off boxes for what they like and don't like about it. One Microsoft rep told me it would be the "biggest experiment ever" in crowd-sourcing an OS build, which ... well, let's just say it'd be fun to hear Linus Torvalds's response to that claim.
At any rate, this process will be a new experience for Microsoft. And the software giant is betting big on Windows 10 as the first major iteration of its "One Microsoft" initiative to produce a single OS that works across all devices, first championed last year by former CEO Steve Ballmer.
So Windows 10 will be the software platform for not just PCs and tablets, but also for smartphones, wearables, IoT devices, entertainment consoles, and embedded systems. To be clear, that doesn't mean there will be one vanilla flavor of Windows 10 that works across all those different devices, but that the basic platform will be relatively easy to tweak to create different versions that do.
Windows 10 will be "one product family, with a tailored experience for each device," Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's Operating Systems group (pictured above) wrote in a blog post.
Old Is the New Windows
For now, the flavor we have to play around with is Windows 10 for the PC, and specifically a version that's aimed at Microsoft's enterprise customers. According to many early returns, including those of my colleague Matthew Murray and Microsoft partner Todd Swank of Equus Computer Systems, the promise of a return to the traditional Windows UI is the big news here.
I'm in that camp as well. As I messed around with the early Windows 10 build, the refurbished Start menu was like having an old friend back on the screen, though I also appreciated the way the Live Tile experience was still easily accessible, and how app browsing and launching can now be conducted with a more traditional Windows feel.


I was also a fan of how Microsoft has brought the decades-old alt-tab command to the forefront, leveraging a long-standing tool of Windows power users to make cleaning up and quickly getting a read on a desktop full of open applications a lot easier and more intuitive. Another cool multi-tasking tool that should boost productivity in Windows 10 is Snap Assist, which lets you "snap" up to four apps at once to get suggestions for other open apps that may help you with a given task.
Seeing virtual desktops in action—well, it's not like fireworks going off or anything, but the integration of these kinds of security and management layers into a Windows OS are clearly aimed at Microsoft business partners like Swank, senior director of product marketing at Equus.
It's not clear that this new stab at desktop virtualization will be a hit with Equus customers, however. Microsoft's existing VDI product is a bit unwieldy for the small- to mid-sized businesses the Minnetonka, Minn.-based system integrator serves, he said.
Ahead of Tuesday's announcement, Swank told me he thought Microsoft had been "extremely reactionary for the last three or so years," following the herd as the BYOD movement heated up and mobile devices supplanted PCs as consumer favorites.
"I've asked them straight, why did you abandon your Windows 7 marketing and make Windows 8 entirely a consumer thing," he said.
But at least getting back to keyboard-and-mouse basics with the desktop PC version of Windows 10 is a step in the right direction, according to Swank. More importantly, opening up the development process to partners like Equus and other elements of Redmond's vast ecosystem is encouraging, he added.
"Microsoft needs to get back to that, to enabling the little guy to build successful products off of their platform. Like the app store is for Apple developers, like building websites with Google ads, it's time they go back to being a platform company," Swank said.
Another thing to like about Windows 10, which Murray also highlighted, is that Microsoft seems committed to truly tailoring Windows 10 to different screen sizes and device types, instead of trying to fit the touch-based tablet UI experience onto the desktop, as happened with Windows 8.
Windows 10 is "a better, more usable, bridge between the desktop and touch worlds," my colleague wrote. My all-too-brief experience with the new OS has encouraged me to agree with him, though of course, it must be noted that we haven't actually seen how Windows 10 works in a touch interface yet.
These are all early findings. We'll report back with more on Windows 10 in the coming days, beginning with the availability of the early build starting tomorrow.

source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2469539,00.asp

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