COMPUTER INFORMATION AND TRAINING FREE: 03/20/12

Windows 8 reportedly set for October debut

Windows 8 Start screen

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft reportedly will finish work on Windows 8 by summer, setting the stage to release the next version of its flagship operating system sometime around October.

Bloomberg, citing "people with knowledge of the schedule," also reports that there will be fewer than five devices running the ARM system-on-a-chip architecture at launch. Those ARM chips allow for thinner, lighter tablet devices, something that Microsoft hopes will help it cut intoApple's iPad's huge lead in the tablet market. The Cupertino rival just disclosed that it sold more than 3 million of its latest iPad since the third-generation gadget debuted Friday.

The report confirms the timing that most analysts have been expecting. Bloomberg notes that Microsoft will lay out the details of the release schedule at an industry event in early April.

A Microsoft spokeswoman declined comment on the report.

Last month, Microsoft said it planned to release a version of Windows 8 on ARM chips at the same time it launched Windows for the x86 chips that power traditional PCs. In a blog post at the time, Windows President Steven Sinofsky said "our collective goal is for PC makers to ship [Windows on ARM devices] the same time" as more conventional Windows PCs debut.

Having fewer than five devices, though, would offer consumers only slight alternatives to Apple's hugely popular iPad. That said, some Microsoft partner may also make tablets running x86 chips, though those devices would likely be bulkier than iPads and the ARM-powered Windows 8 gadgets.

Bloomberg also reported that more than 40 computers running the x86 architecture will be ready for the Windows 8 launch.

An early look at Microsoft Office 15

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Microsoft Office 15 will come built for the desktop but offer a huge touch of the Metro flair, according to a description posted by Supersite for Windows author Paul Thurrott, who obtained a copy of an early preview version.

Accord to Thurrott, the technical preview of Office 15 kicks off like the current version, letting you choose which applications to install.

But after a full installation, you'll find your Metro start screen cluttered with a huge number of live tiles for each application. That's an inherent flaw in the Metro UI, which doesn't allow tiles to be organized into folders. Install enough apps, and your Metro screen can easily be inundated by dozens, if not hundreds, of individual tiles stretching across your screen.

Thurrott even asks the question: "Will Microsoft clean this up? I would bet so." Microsoft clearly needs to offer users a better way to manage the vast number of apps destined to take up space on the start screen. So I also have to believe this must be on the company's to-do list for Windows 8.

Looking at a specific Office application, namely Microsoft Word, it displays a split view with a list of recent documents on the left and a stack of Word templates to choose from on the right. From the screenshot provided by Thurrott, this resembles the split screen you see when you run two Metro apps side by side.

As part of the clean screen approach seen in other Windows 8 apps, such as Internet Explorer 10, Word keeps its infamous ribbon minimized by default, available only when you want it. A new full-screen view hides the ribbon and all other elements, letting you focus just on your document.

Office 15 also taps into the integration between Windows 8 and your Windows Live ID account. By signing into the new OS with your Live ID, you can access your online Photo Gallery, SkyDrive, and other Live services.

The SkyDrive access should prove convenient for people who store their documents online. I use SkyDrive to sync my local files so they're available both in the cloud and across other PCs. Office 15 will let you work directly with your documents on SkyDrive just as if they were stored locally.

The other applications in the suite, such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, carry on with the same visual style and clean screen approach.

Since this is a technical preview, which Microsoft only made available to a select few customers, the company likely still has more changes in store for the new Office suite. But at first glance, Office 15 seems like a step in the right direction, offering some of the simplicity of the Metro style but keeping its roots firmly as a desktop program.

The technical preview of the new Office is expected to blossom into a full beta sometime this summer, available for everyone to try out.

Nokia Lumia 610 can double as Wi-Fi hot spot

Owners of Nokia's Lumia 610 can use their phone as a hot spot to provide Wi-Fi coverage for up to five different devices.

Nokia's Lumia 610 Web site specifically lists that feature under the Sharing and Internet category. The feature pages for the Lumia 710 and the 800 don't yet make any mention of hot-spot capability.

But sit tight, Lumia owners. A Nokia spokesman confirmed to CNET that the company will add hot-spot functionality to the 710 and 800 in a future software update.

Nokia's Web site doesn't yet provide details on the Lumia 900, more

Survey finds half of line-waiting iPad buyers are first-time owners

The new iPad is attracting more new buyers than owners of the original iPad, at least according to a small survey by investment firm UBS.

A full 46 percent of New York City customers waiting in line for the new iPad last Friday were first timers for Apple's popular tablet. Polling a total of 165 eager buyers on launch day, UBS also found that 38 percent were upgrading from the original iPad. The company didn't specify the responses for the remaining 16 percent of those surveyed.

The survey also found that the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model proved the most more

Apple stock finishes above $600 for first time

For a third straight day, shares of Apple rallied toward $600--and this time they finished the day above the iconic mark for the first time in the company's history.

At the close of trading on Monday, shares of Apple stood at $601.10, up 2.65 percent in the aftermath of the company's surprise announcement earlier in the day that it would use some of its $100 billion in cash to pay out a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1.

Last week Apple more