You may be aware of the fact that Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released this week and now we also have some inside views on the OS from Pocketnow. They installed it on a HP TouchSmart tm2 and showed it in action in the video after the break. Imagine a combo between Windows Phone 7 and the Win 7 experience and you’ve got Win 8.
Live tiles are available, animated with pictures, social network notifications, emails and weather. The touch experience is very good and the OS is very responsive. The touch UI in this OS is both efficient and ergonomic, plus it eliminates clutter. The main controls are placed next to the bezel, so thumbs have it handy when you’re holding the tablet. You just swipe your thumb along the left side to flip between open apps. Also, you can swipe across it and back to show a list of thumbnails that stands for open apps that can be tapped to open the one you need.
And then there’s the charms section, that opens when you swipe to the right. The Charms section includes Search, that opens up the search interface, Share, that brings a list of apps that allow you to share stuff that an app offers, Start, that takes you back to the Start interface, Devices, for a list of all connected devices and the good old Settings. A thing to notice immediately is the that the Consumer version is much smoother and more responsive than the developer one launched last year. Apps can open now, flipping happens immediately, we now have People and Photo hubs, so we can see the way that Facebook, Google and Linkedin are integrated.
If you hate mice, than the shortcuts are here to save you, since the Windows + arrow keys move the Metro apps into their left or right docked positions. Windows + C brings up the charms bar, while Windows + Tab toggles between apps and even counts the Windows desktop mode as an application. Windows + PrtScn can capture a PNG of the current screen and save it to the Pictures area. More about that and other aspects of the experience in the video below:
