I have just returned from a great week in Anahiem, CA, where I attended Microsoft’s BUILD conference where Windows 8 was unveiled in detail, along with Windows 8 Server and the next version of Visual Studio (VS11).

I’ll have a lot more to say about Windows 8 in future posts, but I just wanted to briefly cover a subject that I’ve had many conversations about during and since BUILD.

One of the most important new features of Windows 8 is that Microsoft have ported Windows to run on devices powered by ARM processors.

ARM processors are used by almost all smartphone and tablet manufacturers due to their great performance per watt characteristics. Companies like nVidia, Qualcomm, Freescale, Ti and Marvell combine ARM processor cores with graphics, networking, WiFi, Bluetooth, audio and other useful hardware into individual (tiny) packages that are referred to as Systems On a Chip (SOC):

Image Source: Anandtech.com

Hardware manufacturers then attach SOC’s to circuit boards, add some memory, physical connectors for USB, radios for WiFi, cellular, GPS and BlueTooth, etc.

Image Source: BeagleBoard.org

OEM’s then take the (often miniscule) motherboard, add a battery, some storage, a screen and some buttons, stuff everything in a case and create a wide variety of smartphones and tablets for your enjoyment.

While ARM cores have primarily been extremely frugal in terms of electrical power consumption, their processing performance has not allowed them to be used in more complex and sophisticated devices such as laptops and PC’s. Until recently.

Current-generation ARM-based chips are now able to compete from a performance perspective with some of Intel’s low-end processors whilst sipping a small fraction of the power required by Intel’s chips. Further, while today’s ARM-based SOC’s are not as powerful as Intel’s processors, from a processing performance standpoint, ARM is working hard to execute on its aggressive plans to rapidly close the performance gap with Intel whilst keeping its power-consumption requirements very low.

By porting Windows 8 to run on ARM-based devices, Microsoft is massively expanding the reach of the world’s most widely used operating system and application platform to a MUCH broader ecosystem than now includes a large array of different devices offering a wide variety of form factors, sizes, styles, shapes and designs. And by creating new user experience tuned for both touch and traditional keyboard/mouse interactions, Microsoft is providing a formidable platform upon which application developers can build compelling new applications and experiences to delight their customers with.

The first generation of Windows really started with the launch of Windows 3.0 in 1991. The second generation of Windows started with the launch of Windows 95 and has pretty much carried us forwards (albeit with some important improvements) through Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

The third generation of Windows starts here and now with Windows8’s new-found touch-centric, multi-device evolution. It’s going to be fascinating to see how this story unfolds, how customers react to the biggest change to Windows since Windows 95 ushered-in the start menu and how the rest of the industry adapts to the re-emergence of what they thought was a sleeping giant.

Game on!

Although I am not a fan of OSX or Mac desktops, one has to hand it to Apple – they do know how to design elegant portable hardware. The iPod largely buried all the other MP3 players, the iPhone set the mobile phone handset market alight and the MacBook Pro is a beautiful laptop.

Choices, choices

Recently, I was in the market for a new laptop. So, I wrote my list of requirements:

• Great battery life – I am tired of having to be within an easy-reach of a power source
• Decent Core i5/i7 CPU
• GPU - I will rarely be playing games so don’t need bleeding-edge graphics
• SSD would be nice – perhaps as a post-purchase upgrade
• Able to expand to at least 8GB RAM – again, post-purchase upgrade likely
• Non-glossy screen … I *HATE* glossy screens!
• 15” screen would be fine – if I need more space I can plug into an external screen
• At least 1600x900 resolution – I write code a lot so screen real-estate (even at smaller size) is a necessity
• Backlit chicklet keyboard – am really starting to warm to these vs. conventional buttons

I then tracked down the possible contenders and came up with the following list:

• Lenovo T410s
• HP Envy 14
• Dell Vostro 3400
• MacBook Pro 15

I also looked at various laptops from Acer (e.g. Bamboo and similar), Asus, Gateway, etc. but they were either too underpowered, over-power-consuming, too heavy, too glossy-screened or had too little resolution.

I then weighed up my shortlist:

So which one did I buy? None of them!

While I liked the Lenovo, I dislike it’s nipple & trackpad button combo and I really did want a backlit keyboard, plus it would take several weeks to arrive. The Dell’s screen was too low-resolution and the battery life was relatively poor.

That left the HP and the Apple. HP’s Envy was almost everything I was looking for – except that damn glossy screen!!! Seriously … I really do hate glossy screens. Heck, even Apple woke up to this and got a standing ovation when they unveiled the updated unibody MacBook Pro’s with matte screens! HP – provide a matte screen option and ship within a week and you’ll gain at least one more customer.

That left the Apple MacBook Pro 15 with matte screen. The plan was to buy an after-market 8GB memory upgrade ($200) and 256GB SSD ($600), putting the overall cost at around $3300 ish all-in.

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to the Apple store (University Village, Seattle) …

I walked past the Sony store to take a look as I'd not been in for over a year.

To my astonishment, I walked out with a Vaio Z Series!

Sony’s Vista issues

I'd sworn never to buy a Vaio after helping my father in law with the Vaio he purchased when Vista was released. To say that he had a dreadful experience doesn't even begin to describe what he went through! It took a complete re-install of Vista to free the laptop from the mountains of crapware Sony had buried it under. Ed Bott did a great write-up on just how bad Sony screwed up back then, their dreadful Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) and what it took to fix the issues.

Sony’s rise from the ashes

Thankfully, Sony have learned their lesson and have significantly trimmed back their pre-installed software and now actually include helpful software (Adobe’s Creative Bundle) and massively improved their OOBE. It also has a great software recovery and OS reinstallation process.

Mark my words, the Vaio Z Series is utterly stunning:

At just 3lbs, it is unbelievably light - it's lighter than most of the books I read! Pick this notebook up and you’ll think it’s a demo box that is missing its innards!

Stellar Performance

Light usually means slow. Not in this case – the Vaio Z Series is incredibly quick.

The Core i5 540M is a wonderful CPU that is the right balance for processing horsepower and power-consumption. Yesterday I was running two (VirtualBox) Windows XP guests, one Ubuntu guest and an OSX guest atop the Windows7 host ... simultaneously while working on some code in Visual studio on the host! Unless you work at CERN, you're unlikely to push the Z Series' CPU to it's limits and if you do, there's a core i7 option should you want it :)

SSD Goodness

What really surprised me is that the Vaio Z Series comes with 256GB of SSD space! In fact, it comes with two 128GB SSD’s in RAID0. Why this odd combination?

SSD vendors primarily improve performance by increasing the number of chips they can write to in parallel. Sony have taken the pragmatic and effective approach of installing two SSD's which are striped together into a single volume. This means that all reads and writes are performed in parallel and thus you get a noticeable performance boost vs. writing to a single SSD since each SSD is only having to write half the data they otherwise would!

The result? Blindingly fast disk performance. I mean REALLY quick! Windows boots in around 20s! Applications like Visual Studio that usually takes around 30s to start on my desktop with spinning disks takes less than 4s to start on my Z Series!!! Word, Excel, etc. start almost instantly. Outlook runs like lightning. Even GIMP opens from cold in under 5s!!!

Don’t underestimate the value of saving a few seconds a few hundred times a day!

Keyboard and Screen

Design is one thing, but GREAT design is a hard thing to find.

The Keyboard on the Vaio Z Series is almost perfect! The chicklet keyboard is fabulous. This is my first laptop with a non-traditional keyboard and I am completely sold. They keys are perfectly sized and perfectly pitched.

Better still - the auto-dimming back-lit keyboard is a life-saver for anyone like me who prefers working in dark environments.

What about the screen? It is BEAUTIFUL!

What I love most about this screen is that it is semi-matte, not glossy! Did I mention that I *HATE* glossy screens  ;) The Z Series’ semi-matte screen is a tiny bit more reflective than a full-matte screen, but MUCH LESS reflective than your typical glossy screen. The up--side is that the screen image is just as clear as a glossy screen but is as easy to read as a matte screen - even outdoors!

Seriously - whoever made the decision to fit this screen - I owe you a beer!

I opted for the 1600x900 screen - I tried the higher-resolution 1920x1080 screen in the store but you’d need binoculars to use it. Yes, you could bump up the DPI settings, but then the UI often goes a little wonky in many apps which don't honor the DPI settings.

Battery life

I regularly manage to squeeze 5 hours out of a single charge. This isn't some made-up benchmark - this is actual real continual use - Outlook, browsing, watching a few videos, writing & debugging code and websites, photo and image processing. If I was to work a little less intensively I think I could get 6-7 hours out of a single charge!

What would I change?

First and foremost, Sony needs to fix the firmware and enable TPM. Without TPM, Bitlocker etc., are impractical. This is a big deal - ask anyone who's ever had a laptop stolen! PLEASE FIX THIS SONY!

Honestly, other than that, I had to rack my brains to come up with constructive suggestions:

  
1. Have an option to replace the DVD drive with a battery instead! I almost never need a DVD drive these days, but could always do with more battery life
2. Move num-lock and prt-scr keys to buttons above normal keys, make insert = fn+delete. Then add two dedicated keys for page up and down
3. USB3
4. At the Z Series’ price point, these machines should come with 8GB as standard

Conclusion

All-in-all, for a machine this beautiful, light, thin and portable, one would never expect so much performance and horsepower. They keyboard and the screen are a DELIGHT and the "real--life" battery life is impressive.

Well done Sony - you've finally won-back a customer! Keep it up!

In my previous post, we discussed the issues Microsoft faces in globalizing its Windows Phone 7 “Metro” user experience.

An important and particularly compelling part of the Windows Phone user experience are the services Microsoft includes within Windows Phone 7:

• XBox Live (online gaming and entertainment)
• Zune (music and video subscriptions & purchases)
• Windows Phone Marketplace (try and buy applications for Windows Phone)

These services are key differentiators for Windows Phone 7 users - especially XBox Live and Zune - but they bring with them several issues:

Content Distribution Rights

Key among the issues that Microsoft faces are they legalities affecting Microsoft’s ability to offer content (music, games and videos) from various 3rd party content owners (i.e. TV & movie publishers, music labels, games publishers, etc.) to people in different parts of the world.

Make no mistake – this is a minefield.

For example, like Apple’s iTunes service, Microsoft’s Zune music service allows you to buy tracks and albums that you can listen to on your phone, PC, etc.

However, unlike Apple’s iTunes, Microsoft’s Zune allows you to pay a flat fee per month ($15 here in the US) for the right to download and enjoy as much music as you like.

As a Zune customer of many years, I cannot even begin to express just how extraordinarily compelling subscription music is! Not only does this save me AT LEAST $50-$70 per year (vs. the number of CD’s I used to purchase), I am free to explore a MUCH wider spectrum of music than I was able to afford before.

Not only is this a compelling service, but for my $15 per month, I also get to download up to 10 (ten) tracks per month DRM-free for me to keep. Therefore, I pay the equivalent of one CD per month and get to keep a CD’s worth of music from whichever band/album I like, AND I get to listen to as many other albums I want as well.

What’s not to like?

BUT … and this is a big but … The content owners get to decide what content they want to offer for subscription and where in the world Microsoft is permitted to rent their content.

Censorship shmenshorship!

Oh … and let’s not forget the issues of content censorship.

In some parts of the world, freedom is something granted by the state (government, ruler, ruling party, etc.). In many parts of the world, consumers choice is constrained by censorship rules defined by the state. Music containing profanity or expressing views the state disagrees with are banned or dubbed. Movies containing non-approved subject-matter, imagery, scenes or dialog are often edited, dubbed or banned. Games that are deemed too violent are only to be sold to users over a certain age (different ages in different countries) or banned outright.

And these rules and regulations change. Frequently.

Remaining compliant with the laws, rules and regulations of each country in which one operates content delivery services such as Zune and XBox Live is a major headache. And this headache is compounded by the issues of content distribution rights discussed above.

Pity the lawyers (yes … seriously!)

One can only imagine the analysis, planning and negotiations that must ensue to allow Microsoft to deployment Zune XBox Live internationally. Armies of lawyers working with legions of program & project managers, developers, testers, translators and other specialists must be employed to work-through these issues. And these are not simple issues to solve.

Considering the above (and my previous post on globalizing Metro), one can understand, if not accept, why Microsoft had to choose to selectively roll-out its services for Windows Phone 7.

If you’re a fan of what Microsoft is building, it sucks to be in a not-currently-supported part of the world, but I am certain that if the market is sufficient in size and the economies work-out, Microsoft will eventually roll out the online services for Windows Phone (and Windows itself) in your region of the world.

Congratulations to the Windows Phone extended team. Terry Myerson has just announced that Windows Phone 7 has been released to manufacturing (RTM). This means that the final bits have been released to hardware partners and to those lucky enough to receive development hardware. In just a few short weeks, we’ll see the retail launch of a number of new Windows Phone devices with more to come in the coming months too.

Interestingly, those who’ve been playing with early betas of Windows Phone almost unanimously commented on the need to better separate Facebook “friends” from people you actually care about communicating with. The Windows Phone team appear to have taken this feedback on-board and have improved the Windows Phone Facebook integration to allow you to filter your contacts to include only the people you really do want to keep as contacts.

Kudos to the team for taking this feedback on board and improving the product accordingly.

Can’t wait to rush out and get my handset. Only problem is going to be choosing which one!?