Windows 8 Developer Preview from an Audio Perspective.Microsoft opened up their "Build" developers conference this year by streaming the keynote address direct to the web. For the first time we got a full preview of the forthcoming Windows 8 and a preview version to install and mess with outselves. But is there any hint of what this might mean for the computer musician? Is going to be a good thing or a world of pain where the consumer wins but the more professional users lose out? The simple answer is "who knows?" it was only a preview after all, but let's not that deter us from a bit of guess work and stroking our chins over this new and startlingly fresh OS. You can view the whole Build Keynote here: http://www.buildwindows.com it's long, like 3 hours, but fascinating. There’s also footage of all the other seminars and workshops – acres of material that’s of more interest to developers than us users. You can also download the “Developers Preview” version of Windows 8 and install it on your computer – this is remarkably easy to do, but it’s not even a beta version so don’t expect it to all work. The first thing you’ll notice is the look. It’s quite a radical departure from the desktop we’re all familiar with and is obviously built with tablets and touch interfaces in mind. And on a tablet it’s marvellous as it swoops around and swipes from left to right and so on. This is called “Metro” and is the evolution of what we find on the Windows Phone 7.  I’ve had a WP7 since January and it is a wonderfully elegant and intuitive interface. The square blocks are called “Live Tiles” and as well as being the launch button for your application they can also display information – like the latest Tweet or email or weather, picture, album cover – it sort of turns the interface into an interactive information board – it’s a fabulous thing. It’s also where you run your Metro style apps. You launch Internet Explorer, your email, pictures and videos and other apps from this interface, just as you would on a phone, and off you go. That’s great for tablet devices and the like but what about real computers running Win32 apps, what about Cubase, Pro Tools, Premier and all the software we want to run? Well, the desktop is still there and you can drop into it at any time just like any other app. What’s missing is any kind of “Programs” menu or Start Menu stuff – it’s gone. Microsoft are expecting you to access everything you need from either the Metro interface or by typing like you would in the search box. The typing bit actually works really well and found anything I started to type before I’d finished but it will take a lot of getting use to if you usually like to rummage around in the Start Menu for things.  Is the Metro interface any good with a keyboard and mouse? It’s not ideal no, but also not a disaster, it’s easy enough to navigate. Metro is begging to be touched though and I imagine any new Screen you’ll be buying after the launch of Windows 8 will be “touchy” by default. Microsoft’s plan is to have one operating system on everything – that means desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, whatever, all running the same Windows 8 platform. And as a user when you move from one device to another you take your profile and your apps with you. I’m sure the “Cloud” is involved in this somewhere but it does make things very interesting. Apple are already on their way with this idea with the iPhone, iPad and iCloud whizzing things between devices and storing everything online. Their desktop OS is still separate though whereas Microsoft is pushing for conformity across all hardware. With what we’ve seen with the iPad being used as controller for desktop music software I think Windows 8 has a huge opportunity to bring some interesting integration to the table.  Nitty GrittyThe look, feel and user experience is one thing but ultimately if you can’t get near zero latency audio through your audio interface into and back out of the computer then it’s of no use to us. Thankfully there could be some good news in this department. One of the key notes in the keynote for me was the performance comparison between Windows 8 and Windows 7. Microsoft claim that the resources required to run Windows 8 are actually lower than version 7, that you will get better performance, with less overhead and less services running. That could be a truly wonderful thing when you are trying to get Windows and an interface to play nicely. One of the elements that might work against us is the focus on conserving power consumption. They had a new Intel Ultrabook where they showed the amazing computer power than can be housed in a ridiculously thin chassis, but it makes you wonder how you are going to plug anything serious into it and whether it will be interested in running the CPU at full pelt for extended periods of time. Intel’s next generation Ivy Bridge processors support something called Thermal Design Power (TDP) to allow the chips to run in both low-power and high-performance devices – maybe that will allow us to turn off all the power saving nonsense and use our systems at their full capacity. We shall see. One other cause for concern was the use of “Suspension”. It’s a nice idea that can free up tons of resources by freezing applications that are not being used, so that if you have something running in the background it with suspend itself and release more power to the application in focus. However this is no good if you are running Rewire in the background or some controller software like Automap where you need both apps to be running simultaneously. It’s difficult to know exactly how these things will work but let’s hope you can opt to turn it off. I imagine it’s far more useful in a phone or tablet device. In use Windows 8 is actually pretty pleasing. The consumer side is a definite win, just like the WP7 once you’ve hooked up Facebook and Twitter and your Skydrive then it all springs to life in a very merry and intuitive fashion. The switching to and from the desktop is a bit annoying but if you stay with the Metro view then it encourages a cleaner and more organised way of working. I installed both Cubase 6 and Pro Tools 9 running with a Novation Nio 2/4 USB interface and it all worked like a charm. The music industry has always been quick to embrace Apple products. The iPad has demonstrated the usefulness and desirability of the touch interface and manufacturers have released some quite astonishing apps. Windows 8 could bring together a more complete ecosystem with greater integration possibilities and a much larger market. Just imagine working on some tracks in the studio on your PC, then fiddling a bit more on your tablet on the train home, remixing on your laptop in the middle of the night and listening to the result on your phone while you're walking the dog - all accessing the same services, software and content, with Windows 8 this could be possible. Let’s hope the makers of our software and hardware get a hold of the potential. There’s no release date yet but most people are expecting a beta version in the new year with a view to release at some point in 2012. |