the tablet war is heating up

[Relique du Madde]

Only if Blizzard rewrites WOW for a touch interface and an ARM processor.

If they were going to do that, they'd surely do it for the iPad first anyway, no?

Considering that MS is aiming for Windows 8 to be "the one OS" in terms of its ability to run on tablet, phone, and on pcs, I think it would be in Blizzard's best interest to do the Windows 8 edition first since that would be two birds with one stone so to speak since it's cheaper then making the iOs and mac OS then working on Windows 8, android, etc.

 

[Fast Learner]

While they'd have windows system calls in common, I'm not certain that rewriting it for ARM under Windows would be that much easier than for iOS. Depends a lot on how WOW is written, but understand that Windows 8 will run on Intel processors on laptops/desktops and ARM processors on tablets; they can't kill two birds with one stone via a single "Windows 8 version", there's no such beast.

When Win 8 tablets come out I think there are going to be a very lot of unhappy people when they discover that tons of their favorite software won't run under ARM.

(Mind you, I think it's great that MS is unifying the interface the way they are, I think the Metro UI is quite cool and a brave -- even bold -- move by Microsoft, and I think Metro makes OS X look like crap in comparison.)

 

[Alan Shutko]

The iOS mail app will search the from, to, or subject headers, or all three at once. It won't, sadly, search the body of the message. Wait...just found out that in iOS 5 it can search the body, and will search the body on server searches as well, depending on the server. (Apparently not on gmail.)

I had gotten so used to searches being futile I hadnt actually tried since iOS 5 came out.

 

[Janx]

While they'd have windows system calls in common, I'm not certain that rewriting it for ARM under Windows would be that much easier than for iOS. Depends a lot on how WOW is written, but understand that Windows 8 will run on Intel processors on laptops/desktops and ARM processors on tablets; they can't kill two birds with one stone via a single "Windows 8 version", there's no such beast.

When Win 8 tablets come out I think there are going to be a very lot of unhappy people when they discover that tons of their favorite software won't run under ARM.

(Mind you, I think it's great that MS is unifying the interface the way they are, I think the Metro UI is quite cool and a brave -- even bold -- move by Microsoft, and I think Metro makes OS X look like crap in comparison.)

unless something has changed since the last tech briefing I saw, not all WinTabs will be ARM.

Wow should work out of the gate on Win8. It'll launch into Desktop mode (where all the legacy stuff runs). The touch screen will translate to a mouse (as it does on Win7 touch screen devices today).

Win8 is built on Win7, particularly Desktop mode. Metro mode is where there's a new stack between the UI and the very bottom layer of the OS. It is Metro mode where rewrites are needed.

 

[Fast Learner]

unless something has changed since the last tech briefing I saw, not all WinTabs will be ARM.

If there will be Intel tablets, I'll be curious to see what the ratio is compared to ARM, and how popular they'll be. They will, if nothing else, suffer significantly in the battery department.

The touch screen will translate to a mouse (as it does on Win7 touch screen devices today).

Conceptually, yes, but WOW is pretty keyboard intensive. As such, I'd think a touch rewrite would be required.

Win8 is built on Win7, particularly Desktop mode. Metro mode is where there's a new stack between the UI and the very bottom layer of the OS. It is Metro mode where rewrites are needed.

I understand that, but again with the touchscreen, and it will have to be rewritten for ARM if it's to run there. I'm certain that the vast majority of the code is pretty low-level in order to get decent framerates on a variety of graphics chips.

 

[Janx]

If there will be Intel tablets, I'll be curious to see what the ratio is compared to ARM, and how popular they'll be. They will, if nothing else, suffer significantly in the battery department.


Conceptually, yes, but WOW is pretty keyboard intensive. As such, I'd think a touch rewrite would be required.


I understand that, but again with the touchscreen, and it will have to be rewritten for ARM if it's to run there. I'm certain that the vast majority of the code is pretty low-level in order to get decent framerates on a variety of graphics chips.

Originally, ARM was only going to be supported in Metro mode (thus Arm tablets only run Metro apps, no desktop mode thus no legacy apps).

The last briefing I saw in November indicated that had changed, and that ARM would also have desktop mode.

Though, a windows app working in ARM was only likely so long as that app uses MS's standard APIs and doesn' bypass anything to get to the low level stuff. Thus, a pure .NET app is probably fine. Something that cheats (like a game with optimized graphics code) probably not.

 

[Fast Learner]

Originally, ARM was only going to be supported in Metro mode (thus Arm tablets only run Metro apps, no desktop mode thus no legacy apps).

The last briefing I saw in November indicated that had changed, and that ARM would also have desktop mode.

Same here.

Though, a windows app working in ARM was only likely so long as that app uses MS's standard APIs and doesn' bypass anything to get to the low level stuff. Thus, a pure .NET app is probably fine. Something that cheats (like a game with optimized graphics code) probably not.

Agreed, which is why I suspect WOW would have to be re-engineered for ARM (and again, for working well without a keyboard), and if you're going to do that, it seems like making an iPad version would be your higher priority since it's touch, it's ARM, and there are some 90 million iPads out there already. The bulk of that same code could be used for a Win 8 ARM version, with the only major differences being the graphics chipset, and you know they're good at targeting those (since they have to support such a variety already).

 

[Felon]

Personally I can't wait for The Windows 8 Tablet.

All their marketing has to be is:

Want to play WOW while on a bus, or would you rather play "Angry Gerbils? With a windows Tablet you can do both."

They could also be sneaky and show someone navigating to iTunes.

-Sent via Tapatalk

Yep. Windows 8 should be a real game-changer. Tablets will be much more of a productivity device at the workplace.

 

[IronWolf]

Yep. Windows 8 should be a real game-changer. Tablets will be much more of a productivity device at the workplace.

We've had several people using their iPads at my place of employment with great success. They accomplish a good amount on them as is. We'll see what Windows 8 brings, but I am not thinking it will entice my current heavy iPad for work users to a new platform. I could be mistaken on that though.

 

[Felon]

We've had several people using their iPads at my place of employment with great success. They accomplish a good amount on them as is. We'll see what Windows 8 brings, but I am not thinking it will entice my current heavy iPad for work users to a new platform. I could be mistaken on that though.

You can do word processing and spreadsheets on iPad. It's fine for folks who have those light, generic needs. But it's no enterprise solution.

Now, with Windows, your world opens up, but then you run into those Windows issues. No walled garden here, so viruses and patching kill the magic. Maybe they can simply rebooting by letting you shake it like an Etcher-Sketch.