Why Microsoft redesigned Windows

New Windows chief Julie Larson-Green explains why the company felt the need to rethink the basic interface of its popular operating system.

New Windows chief Julie Larson-Green.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Windows 8 has its fans and foes, but Microsoft felt the time was ripe for a new look and feel for a product used by more than 1.2 billion people.

Julie Larson-Green, the new head of Windows product development, recently spoke with MIT Technology Review about the reasons behind the major changes in the latest version of Windows.

Touting the new Windows 8 Start screen, Larson-Green said that in the past Windows users worked at a desktop with a monitor. In her view, people typically launched one window, put it away, and then launched another window. But in Windows 8, all the apps and windows you might want to launch are visible through Live Tiles.

"Instead of having to find many little rocks to look underneath, you see a kind of dashboard of everything that's going on and everything you care about all at once," Larson-Green said. "It puts you closer to what you're trying to get done."

Sony Duo 11 Ultrabook review: Blurring the line between tablet and laptop

Unpacking the Sony Duo 11 (aka the SVD1123CXB) reveals what appears to be a tablet; no keyboard is immediately visible. Yet when you pick it up, it seems a little hefty for a tablet. What's going on here? Well, the Duo 11 is not just a tablet. Lifting up the top edge tilts the display and reveals a sliding keyboard hidden beneath the panel.

Welcome to the world of Windows 8 sliders. The Duo 11 keeps its keyboard tucked underneath the tablet's bottom chassis—it's there when you need it, but you can hide it away when you don't.

SONY

The Duo 11 modes

The Duo 11 weighs in at 2 pounds, 13 ounces, decidedly on the light side for an Ultrabook. The 11.6-inch screen offers a full 1920-by-1080-pixel IPS touchscreen panel that provides good image quality and color fidelity. Sony also built a full Wacom digitizer into the touchscreen, complete with a stylus supporting 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. Artists will appreciate the digitizer, but Sony didn't think to include a slot to store the stylus in the body of the unit, so you'll need to keep track of it as you travel.

Picture of Nokia Lumia 620 in Vietnam

Screen with ClearBlack technology for better viewing angles in the sun.

The back cover of the machine made ​​from polycarbonate and have a variety of colors can be replaced.