Just like we said yesterday, Microsoft has released the Windows 8 Release Preview on the stipulated date. As with the Consumer Preview, you can download the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant that analyzes your computer and provides a smaller download or you can download the full 32-bit or 64-bit ISO files.

Among the major changes in this new version includes a bunch of new apps that include Bing Travel, News and Sports apps, as well as Gaming and Music Xbox apps that integrate with your Zune pass. The Mail, Photos and People apps have also been updated. Read more »

It seems Microsoft is all set to release the next version of Windows 8 Release Preview today on May 31. This information comes courtesy The Next Web, who noticed a prematurely published blog post on Microsoft’s developer website announcing the launch of the new update.

The post was written by Chuck Chan, Corporate Vice President on the Windows Development team who talked about the Release Preview. The blog post was written yesterday on May 30 but had May 31 time stamp. Needless to say the post has since been pulled down but you might see it being live soon. Read more »

We just talked about some great discounts on EA games on the App Store. But why should iOS users have all the fun? Now thanks to the ‘Because We May’ campaign, you can get great discounts on Android, OS X and Steam as well.

The purpose of this campaign is simple. Developers should be allowed to price their apps as they please. If they want to drop their prices because they want to promote their titles, they should be free to do so. Through this campaign, some of the developers have come together and offered to price their games at a discounted rates for the duration of May 24 to June 1. It also helps highlight the application stores that give the freedom to the developers to price their games whatever they want to. Read more »

A lot of people have complained about the discrepancy between the two modes on Windows 8. As you may know, Windows 8 will ship with the new Metro UI as well as a standard desktop mode for legacy apps. While the Metro side of the OS looks modern and fresh, the desktop version looks almost similar to older versions of Windows and the two couldn’t be more different.

Microsoft has heard your complaints and although they won’t be redesigning the desktop side in Metro they have made some changes to the existing UI to be more in sync with the Metro design language. Read more »

ENVY, HP’s family of thin and light notebooks just grew by five members. HP just announced the ENVY Spectre XT, ENVY Sleekbook 14 and 15.6-inch and the ENVY Ultrabook 14 and 15.6-inch models.

Priced at $999, the ENVY Spectre XT comes with a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 resolution display, third generation Intel Core (Ivy Bridge) processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, USB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, backlit keyboard, Beats Audio with quad speakers, eight hours battery life, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with two-year subscription to Norton Internet Security, full versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 10. It will go on sale on June 8. Read more »

Sony has officially announced their first Ultrabooks, the VAIO T11 and T13. As you can guess, the former has a 11-inch display and the latter a 13-inch display.

Both Ultrabooks will feature a sleek magnesium and aluminum body that will be 17.8mm thick. You get a full set of ports, including Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 and also an SD card slot. It has the traditional VAIO chicklet keyboard and a MacBook style trackpad that will hopefully will be similarly good. Read more »

After being rumored for the better part of the last year, Google officially just announced its own cloud storage solution – Drive.

Google Drive gives you 5GB of storage the second you sign in to use the service. No questions asked. The interface is based on Google Docs and you can collaborate with other people on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The sharing and collaboration system is enhanced by comments, which you get notified for if they are new. Read more »

The countdown to the Windows 8 launch is slowly ticking (although we are not sure which date it is ticking down to) but while we wait for the final version to go on sale Microsoft is going to keep us busy with another beta version of the desktop OS.

Microsoft announced at the Windows 8 Developer Days conference that the Windows 8 Release Preview (previously known as Release Candidate) will be released in the first week of June. There was no further mention about the exact date or what changes this new version might bring. Read more »

Rumors about Google’s own cloud file sharing service dubbed Drive have been roaming the Internet for quite a while now. There are strong indications the launch is imminent and, now we hear it will be happening as early as next week.

The guys from TechCrunch got their hands on the Google Drive app for Mac OS X, proving the search giant’s intention of launching its newest service in the nearest future. Read more »

Microsoft has released the list of editions that Windows 8 will be sold in. As of now, there will be four editions, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise and Windows RT.

The first three will be available for PCs and tablet users running x86/64 processors and will be on sale whereas Windows RT will be exclusively for PCs and tablets running on the ARM platform and will not be sold but would rather ship built into the devices. According to Microsoft, all editions of Windows 8 offer a no-compromise experience, which has sort of become their slogan with Windows 8. Read more »

We are about six months away from seeing the first Windows 8 tablets and personal computers hit the shelves now. Sources close to the matter were quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the next edition of the Windows 8 platform development will be complete by this summer and the first devices carrying it will hit the market in October.

Microsoft’s goal is to ship the x86 and the ARM versions of Windows 8 simultaneously and the company already confirmed there will be devices running both at launch day. Read more »

PC manufacturers can’t wait for Windows 8 to come out and they’ll be competing to be the first to offer a tablet running Microsoft’s new OS. Rumor has it that Lenovo will try to launch a W8 tablet as soon as the OS hits the shelves.

But they’ll have competition – Dell’s head honcho has already said “We’ll be there right on the very first day that Windows 8 is available”. Read more »

Prepare to act surprised. The Nokia head designer Marko Ahtisaari reportedly confirmed that his company is working on a tablet. What’s more, Mr. Ahtisaari says that he has dedicated no less than a third of his working time to the project in order to make the device stand out in the crowd.

Reuters reports that Nokia still hasn’t joined the tablet party due to the company’s wish to offer a product that’s easy to differentiate. Read more »

Google revealed they are busy at work to create a Metro version of their popular desktop browser Chrome for Windows 8. Microsoft’s new OS is a strange beast with two different environments – Windows 7-style desktop and the new Metro interface – which will run separate apps.

While the current browser will work just fine in desktop mode, it won’t be accessible in Metro, which is the preferred UI for tablets. Google is specifically looking to improve touch support for the Chrome on Metro. Read more »

Asus announced two new ultrabooks powered by Intel’s oft-delayed Ivy Bridge processor. There are 11.6″ and a 13.3″ versions – Asus Zenbook UX21A and UX31A respectively. Either size will have a FullHD IPS screen – yep, that’s 1920×1080 resolution on a 11.6″ screen.

The IPS screens will offer 350 nits of brightness, but if they are too pricy for you, you can switch to a vanilla LCD screen instead. That drops the brightness to 300 nits and the resolution is downgraded to 1600×900 for the 13.3″ model and 1366×768 for the 11.6″ one. Read more »