Facebook Is Forcing All Users To Download Messenger

Facebook is taking its standalone app strategy to a new extreme today. It’s starting to notify users they’ll no longer have the option to send and receive messages in Facebook for iOS and Android, and will instead have to download Facebook Messenger to chat on mobile.

Facebook’s main apps have always included a full-featured messaging tab. Then a few months ago, users who also had Facebook’s standalone Messenger app installed hadthe chat tab of their main apps replaced with a hotlink button that would open Messenger. But this was optional. If you wanted to message inside Facebook for iOS or Android, you just didn’t download Messenger. That’s not going to be an option anymore.

Soon, all iOS and Android users will have a hotlink at the bottom of their Facebook app that will open Messenger.

Notifications about the change are going out to some users in Europe starting today, and they’ll have about two weeks and see multiple alerts before the requirement to download Messenger kicks in. Eventually, all Facebook users will get migrated to this new protocol. And you can bet some users are going to be angry.

The only way to escape the migration is to either have a low-end Android with an OS too old to run Messenger, use Facebook’s mobile web site, or use Facebook’s standalone content reader app Paper.

In an onstage talk I did with Mark Zuckerberg in November, the CEO revealed an explanation for today’s change that Facebook’s PR team just referred me to:

“the other thing that we’re doing with Messenger is making it so once you have the standalone Messenger app, we are actually taking messaging out of the main Facebook app. And the reason why we’re doing that is we found that having it as a second-class thing inside the Facebook app makes it so there’s more friction to replying to messages, so we would rather have people be using a more focused experience for that.” 

Essentially, Facebook sees Messaging within its main apps as slow, buried, and sub-optimal overall. Its numbers probably indicate that people message more and have a better experience on the standalone Messenger app.

But forcing users to adopt a new messaging behavior could be very unpopular. Not everyone wants to manage multiple Facebook apps on their homescreen or stick them in a folder. A portion of Facebook users may prefer to keep things simple with one app for everything Facebook, even if it means it’s slower and it takes more taps to get to their messages.

Facebook was criticized for its bloated main apps but this announcement seems like an over-correction, swinging wildly in the direction of each function having its own app. Obviously there’s merit to only having to maintain one mobile chat interface. It promotes faster feature development and better stability. And once users go through the chore of setting up Messenger and adapting to its style, they may enjoy it better. Personally, I like Messenger’s clean look and feel, playful sounds, and quick performance.

Still, a unilateral forced migration is the exact kind of change Facebook users hate, and this will only breed more paranoia that their social network could change without their consent. Taking a slower “We’re switching everyone eventually, so you might as well do it now” approach might have gone over better than “Your familiar chat interface will be destroyed in two weeks whether you like it or not”.

The only real explanation for moving this quickly is that desperate times call for desperate measures. Facebook is fighting a war overseas for the fate of messaging. While it bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, it still has to battle lean standalone messaging apps like WeChat, Kik, KakaoTalk, and Line. Unless forced, users might have stuck with the old Facebook app’s messaging interface instead of seeing there was something that could better compete with these other apps. That isn’t going to make this change much easier to swallow, though.

Source

Read More

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF THAT LOW MEMORY DEVICE

It is common knowledge that all fingers are not equal. This is also evident even in the devices bought by different individuals. This is more so because to a vast majority of people in developing countries like Nigeria, the major factor that influences the purchasing decision when it comes to mobile devices (phones) is the price tag. Unfortunately, after finally gathering enough courage to "cough" out the money required to purchase the device of your dreams, the sad reality strikes even more often on people who buy low budget phones, and that beautiful life you envisioned before buying the phone can quickly become a nightmare.

To avoid spanking yourself and feeling like an idiot, here are some tips that would make your life easier.

1. Ensure that there is an antivirus software installed on the phone, for android, iphone, symbian, windows phone users.

2. Avoid storing heavy files on your internal phone memory, store them in sd-Card instead.

3. If possible, install apps on your memory card also, to reserve space on the device memory.

4. There are some RAM booster apps on different appstores that would help you reclaim space in your RAM from time to time therefore increasing device performance and speed.

5. If your device has multi-tasking capabilities, ensure that you close all unused apps, even when the system offers a promise of doing that for you. That is important because, when you need that space the most, it may not have dawned on your device's garbage collector to clear the unused apps yet.

6.  Most importantly, dowload and install only apps you really need. Since the resource (memory) is scarse, it is just appropriate to install only the most important apps. Apart from the ones mentioned earlier in this article, you might want to install a game, a currency converter, a multi-purpose document and news reader, an additional web browser and a few others that are perculiar to your situation. But avoid bloating things up by installing unnecessary apps or installing multiple apps that do the same thing.

Read More

MediaFire Takes Its Desktop Apps Out Of Beta, Removes File Size Restrictions

MediaFire, the popular online file storage and image hosting site, today announced that its desktop apps for Windows and OS X are now out of beta. The integration looks similar to what Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive do in that they seamlessly integrate themselves into the operating system’s file managers and save dialogs.

Using the desktop apps, MediaFire allows desktop uses to quickly upload their images and instantly share them with others. As part of this update, the service now allows users to follow files and track new files shared by users automatically. It also essentially lifted its file upload restrictions and both free and paid users can now upload files up to 20 gigabytes in size. It’s also launching 1 terabyte storage plans. For a limited time, those will cost $2.50 per month or $24.99 per year. That’s significantly cheaper than Google’s new plans for Drive, but the functionality of MediaFire is obviously also far more limited that of Drive. If you’re just looking for online storage, though, this may be worth a closer look.

For developers, the company is announcing a set of new APIs that will help them integrate the service with their own applications.

In the next few weeks, MediaFire will also launch new native apps for iPad and Android. The company isn’t releasing all that much information about these apps yet, but they will include automatic photo syncing from Android devices.

All of this clearly amounts to an attempt by MediaFire to position itself as a more fully-featured online storage service. In general, the service doesn’t quite get the attention that some of its competitors get, but it does have a very large user base. With all of the larger players now making a very aggressive push to compete with Dropbox and similar services, it makes sense for MediaFire to also try to gain a bit more mind share as well.

Source

Read More

Marvel’s iPhone App Turns Sketches Into Tappable Mobile App “Prototypes”

Marvel, a UK startup founded last year by ex-employees of Enpocket (acquired by Nokia), is on a mission: to put creating a mobile app “prototype” within the reach of almost anybody.

The company’s first offering, built on top of Dropbox, lets you turn sketches, wireframes, and Photoshop files synced with the cloud-storage service into a tappable (or clickable) demo of how your mobile app will work. It does this by letting you add ‘hotspots’ and transitions to your images so that the resulting prototype can be navigated as if it were an actual app.

Now Marvel has applied this simple idea to an iPhone app of its own which lets you photograph paper sketches of your app idea and tun these into interactive prototypes too.

Aimed at designers, UX experts, product managers, students and businesses that need to quickly prototype ideas to share with clients and teams, Marvel’s iPhone app (and its original web-based offering) couldn’t really be any simpler.

To begin with you draw your app screens on paper, a whiteboard, or on the back of a napkin in true folklore style, and then use your iPhone to take a snap of each sketch, which can be designed for either iPhone or iPad.

Next, using the Marvel app, you apply ‘touch’ hotspots to each image and in turn link your screens together in the way you intend the app to be navigated.

Finally, once you’re happy with your prototype, you can share it via a unique mobile-friendly URL over email, SMS or Twitter. Meanwhile, your Marvel prototype is synced with Dropbox and linked to your Marvel account so that you can continue working on it at a future date.

In addition, any changes you make to your ‘screen’ images, even via another app such as Photoshop, are synced with Marvel due to being built on top of Dropbox. This also means the startup is able to offer its core service for free without limits since it isn’t providing cloud-storage.

“In the past, if you wanted to see your app or web designs and ideas in anything more engaging than PDFs and Powerpoints, you needed to have the skills and the time to code it into an interactive prototype. This often puts prototyping out of reach for many businesses and individuals as they simply don’t have the time, money or developer resources,” explains Marvel co-founder Murat Mutlu.

“What if you could create a prototyping tool that didn’t just help designers and businesses, but anyone with an idea, no matter what level of design and technical skill they had? Marvel was designed and built to do just that,” he adds. “We’ve designed Marvel to be ‘pick up and play’. No maze like interface and gunk you don’t need. The aim of Marvel is to create your prototype and just get out of the way so that you can concentrate on the important stuff.”

Along with Mutlu, the startups other co-founders are Brendan Moore, previously a Solutions Engineer at Nokia and Navteq, and Jonathan Siao, who also worked at Nokia. All three went full-time with Marvel after the company raised a £60k investment from Haatch in November.

Mutlu cites Invision as its main competitor in what is an increasingly crowded space. “They are extremely well funded, have a huge team and a 2.5 year head start. But there’s still an opportunity to take a different approach and do something bigger, more meaningful and with a better experience,” he says.

To that end, while Marvel is free to use, the startup plans to move to a freemium model with a “Pro” version offering additional features, such as team collaboration and further service integrations.

Source

Read More

Taking a shower without a towel, how cool is that?

Showering is great, I’m a big fan. But drying off? Laaaaammmmmeeee. All that towelling, it’s enough to make you need another shower, am I right? New York-based startup The Body Dryer realizes this, and they’ve created a device to help you skip the towel and get dry a better way.

The Body Dryer dries you from the ground up, using a device that resembles a bathroom scale but that shoots air up to rid your body of all that excess water. The whole point of the thing is supposed to be to get rid of bacteria that can accumulate and grow on towels, which are apparently a breeding ground for that kind of thing (who knew).

The Body Dryer uses forced “ionized air” which can be set to blow either hot or cold, and the company wants to make them not only for home use, but also for commercial installations in gyms and other high traffic shower zones. At retail, this thing is supposedly going to sell for $250, but backers can secure a pre-order for just $125 while the Indiegogo campaign is going on. Already $30,000 of the $50,000 the company needs to hit production has been raised.

I didn’t include the video up top like I normally do for these projects because it includes the shameless use of scantily-clad women, which is completely unnecessary and frankly a bit stupid, but I still really do want to stop using towels and lighten my laundry load, despite any questionable marketing choices the company may have made.

As for drying time, the project’s creators claim around 30 seconds from start to finish, though this will vary slightly depending on your height – shorter people will dry faster, as they’re closer to the source of the outgoing air. Shipping on the devices is expected to take place in September, and so long as Dyson doesn’t come up with a competitor in the meantime, color me interested.

Source

Read More

Printic Lets You Quickly Build Photo Books From Your Smartphone

Printic, the smartphone application that lets you order Polaroid-like photo prints with your own custom captions, is now expanding its product lineup to also include photo books. The books are similar in style to those from competitor Mosaic(owned by Mixbook), with a black linen hardcover and cut-out windows on the front, allowing you a sneak peek at some of the photos inside.

The Paris-based startup, founded by Benjamin Grelié, Florent Malbranche and Nicolas Reboud, has been steadily improving their Printic app in the months since its 2012 debut. It now offers boxes of “printics,” as it calls its mini-photos, as well as calendars, in addition to the new book.

Like the prints, the book also ships in an attractive orange box, which makes it feel more like a gift – as many photo book orders today are, of course. You can pick out 20 photos to be featured in its 24 pages, and then with an editor, you can tap and hold photos to rearrange the order, crop photos, or tap on a color picker to customize the pages’ background. Photos are printed on high-end glossy paper, and can include those not only from your Camera Roll or Gallery, but from social networks like Instagram and Facebook.

In the future, the company will consider offering additional themes, stickers and caption controls as options, if users demand them, but for now, explains co-founder Malbranche, the idea was to “create a simple tool and see how people react.”

While the book is, as noted above, reminiscent of thoseMosaic sells today, but the customization options it offers now and in the future will be a differentiating factor. Mosaic’s larger vision is that people don’t have time to build out photo books, especially from mobile devices, so its service is more automated. In addition, adds Malbranche, “we also wanted to provide Europe and Asia with such a tool – we didn’t have any book making app so far,” he says. (Printic’s books are also available in North America.)

The books sell for $29.90 / 24,90€, and taxes and shipping are included in the price. That’s a bit pricier than Mosaic ($20), but Mosaic’s flat rate doesn’t include the tax and shipping fees.

The company, whose app has been download just under a million times to date, is now growing at around 30% month-over-month, and is still bootstrapped for the time being as the company is profitable.

Source

Read More

StoreDot promises to recharge your phone in just 30 seconds, but not until 2016

Running out of power is pretty much the biggest pain of modern day smartphones, and while sitting around waiting for them to charge isn’t usually the end of the world, there are still better things you could be doing.

Enter StoreDot, an Israeli technology company with a special battery and charger that can supposedly cut re-juicing time down to around 30 seconds. The prototype charging unit, designed for the Samsung Galaxy S4, was demoed for the first time at Microsoft’s Think Nextconference in Tel Aviv, Israel, today – but most of the innovation comes in the battery pack itself, rather than the charger.

As special batteries are required, there’s no need to worry about the effect on the long-term life of your existing battery pack. In fact, the company says that in addition to charging faster, StoreDot batteries will “withstand thousands of charge/discharge cycles, prolonging battery life expectancy considerably”.

Check out the impressive but bizarrely-noisy-for-a-silent-movie clip below for a demo.

It’s not the first time nanotechnology has been applied to speed up charging in smartphones, 18-year-old Eesha Khare bagged a runner-up spot at Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair in Maylast year.

While it might seem like one small dream come true – any reduction in charging time is welcome around here – the technology is still a long way off making it to market. The plan is to go into mass production in late 2016, StoreDot’s CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf, told TNW.

In essence, what we have developed is a new generation of an electrode with new materials – we call it MFE – Multi Function Electrode. One side acts like a Supercapacitor (very fast charging), and the other is like a Lithium electrode (slow discharge). The electrolyte is modified as well with our nanodots in order to allow for the multifunction electrode to be effective. Although not quite there yet, we are aiming for the same capacity as a Li=ion battery (~2000mAh). Self-discharge is similar to Li-ion as well. We anticipate to reach this goal in one year. Mass production in planned for late 2016.

Myersdorf added that the company counts “a large Asian smartphone manufacturer” among its strategic investors – and judging from the video, there’s a fairly good idea which company it might be.

It doesn’t stop at smartphone batteries though, StoreDot calls the underlying technology ‘Nanodots’ and has just scored $6 million in funding to further develop it. According to the company, its “nanoscale crystals” made up of “chemically synthesized bio-organic peptide molecules” could be used in other consumer electronics, such as displays.

“The breakthrough technology in StoreDot Nanodots is that they demonstrate diverse physical and electrochemical properties at nanoscale, including visible luminescence, showing red, green and blue colors that enhance new generation display technology,” thecompany says.

Source

Read More

EMEA travel grants for the Grace Hopper Conference 2013

Google is delighted to announce EMEA travel grants for the Grace Hopper Conference 2013, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 2-5, 2013.

We are offering the winners free registration for the conference, hotel accommodation and flights. You can find the eligibility criteria below.

How to apply

Applicants must complete and submit this form by August 22nd. Please include a resume.

Grace Hopper Travel Grant - Terms & Conditions:

1. Eligibility criteria: Applicants must be either female university students or industry professionals. 1.1 University Students: A female student enrolled in a bachelors, masters or PhD program (or equivalent) for the 2013-2014 academic year or a current student who is graduating in 2013 or later. Applicants must be enrolled at a university in Europe, the Middle East or Africa. Citizens, permanent residents, and international students are eligible to apply. Student applicants must be studying computer science, computer engineering, informatics, or a closely related technical field. 1.2 Industry professionals: A female professional software engineer working in the industry. Must be citizen or permanent resident of a country in the Europe, Middle East or Africa. 1.3 Persons who are (1) residents of embargoed countries, (2) ordinarily resident in embargoed countries, or (3) otherwise prohibited by applicable export controls and sanctions programs may not apply for this travel grant. 1.4 Applicants must be available to travel to the conference between October 2 -5, 2013. 1.5 Current Google employees or current Google interns are not eligible to apply. 1.6 Applicants must be 18 years of age or older as of August 8, 2013.

2. Travel and visa arrangements: 2.1 Applicants will be responsible for securing and paying for any applicable visas required in order for them to attend the conference. 2.2 The Grace Hopper Travel Grant will cover the registration fee for the Grace Hopper Conference, travel to and from the conference and hotel accommodation.

Winners will be announced on the week of September 4th.

To find our more about the program, please visit: http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/students/proscho/scholarships/emea/travelgrants/

Google's use of this data is governed by our privacy policy found at http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy

For any questions please reach out to: grace-hopper-grant@google.com

Read More

How To Upgrade Your Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 To Windows 8

Introduction

Okay, so you’ve decided to take the plunge to Windows 8—and, rather than buy a new PC with Windows 8 installed, you want to upgrade your current version of Windows. The big first questions, then: Can you upgrade to Windows 8 directly from your current version, and if so, how?

The answer is yes, so long as you’re currently running Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP, along with the right software updates. And, as we found in our testing and experiments with all three, that upgrade process is generally smoother than it was in years past with previous Windows versions. Prior to Windows 8, many users would install a new version of Windows from scratch. Though more time-consuming than upgrading, a fresh install would ensure a clean, new Windows and circumvent the glitches that sometimes popped up during an upgrade.

You can still do that, and sometimes it's the right (or only) way to do it. But with Windows 8, Microsoft has revamped the "in-place upgrade" process so that it’s relatively stress-free. (An in-place upgrade refers to upgrading the OS on top of an earlier version, without wiping out the drive first. This usually—but not always—preserves your files and/or settings.) We say “relatively,” though, because figuring out the sequence of what you need to do can still be tricky, depending on the circumstances. Where and how do you get the upgrade? Will your files and applications survive the trip? And how much will it cost you?

In this article, we clear up many of the questions and mysteries surrounding the Windows 8 upgrade. We explain where to find it, how to apply it, and what to expect when it’s all finished. Note, however, that we're talking here strictly about the in-place upgrade process. It will be different for you if you're building a Windows 8 PC from scratch, or wiping off the hard drive on your current PC and starting the install from zero. (In the latter case, you might choose to do that to clean up a messy PC, or because the OS version you're currently running requires it.) Those eventualities would require an OEM, or "System Builder," version of Windows 8, which is a different animal than what we're dealing with here.

Do You Qualify for the Upgrade?

You can upgrade directly to Windows 8 from Windows 7, Windows Vista (with or without Service Pack 1), and Windows XP (with Service Pack 3). But what do you get to keep and what will you lose? It depends on which version of Windows you are currently running, as well as, in some cases, which Service Pack you have installed for that version of Windows.

Upgrading from Windows 7

Those of you running Windows 7 are in the best position to jump to Windows 8. If you upgrade from Windows 7, Windows 8 retains all of your applications, customized settings, and personal files and documents, so nothing gets lost.

Upgrading from Windows Vista (with Service Pack 1)

Upgrading Windows Vista with SP1 retains your personal files, your documents, and your customized settings, but your applications will be lost. You’ll need to reinstall all your software from scratch.

Upgrading from Windows Vista (without Service Pack 1)

Upgrading from Vista without SP1 keeps your personal files intact, but not your applications or customized settings. In this case, you’ll have to install SP1 beforeupgrading to Windows 8 if you want to retain your settings.

Upgrading from Windows XP (with Service Pack 3)

Finally, upgrading to Windows 8 from XP with SP3 keeps your personal files in place, but you’ll lose your applications and customized settings.

The Bottom Line

So, to summarize: Except for you lucky Windows 7 users, the rest of you will need to make sure you have all of the appropriate software installation discs or install files handy to reinstall your programs once Windows 8 is up and running.

Just as important: Whichever version of Windows you're starting from, we also recommend performing a full backup of your current version of Windows before you attempt the upgrade. At the very, very least, you should make certain that your documents and critical files are backed up before moving forward. Though the upgrade promises to retain your personal files, it doesn’t hurt to err on the side of safety.

One other thing you need to factor in is the architecture of Windows you're coming from and going to: 32-bit or 64-bit. If your current version of Windows is a 32-bit one, you can upgrade directly only to the 32-bit version of Windows 8. Likewise, if your current version is 64-bit, you can upgrade to the 64-bit version of Windows 8. But if you want to shift between architectures (say, from a 32-bit version of Windows 7 to a 64-bit version of Windows 8), you’ll need to perform a clean install.

Note that the promotional pricing Microsoft is offering until Jan. 31, 2013, is for Windows 8 Pronot the standard version of Windows 8. For most users, the Professional edition is preferable, seeing as it includes such options as Remote Desktop and BitLocker encryption, and gives you the ability to add Windows 8’s Media Center module for free.

Upgrade Pricing (and How to Get It) 

Here in early January 2013, upgrading to Windows 8 Pro will cost you $69.99 to get the software on a DVD or $39.99 to download the program. That price holds for Windows 7, Vista, and XP users. Choosing the $39.99 download is a good way to save cash, since you can always burn the downloaded file onto a DVD yourself.

If you bought a PC recently, though, you may have an even cheaper option. Those of you who purchased (or may still buy) a Windows 7-based PC between June 2, 2012, and January 31, 2013, can download the Windows 8 Pro upgrade for just $14.99, saving you a cool $25.

You can upgrade a maximum of five PCs under either deal, with each PC costing you $14.99 or $39.99 to upgrade. Both deals are good only until January 31, 2013, after which time Microsoft's Windows 8 upgrade prices will increase substantially. On Jan. 18, Microsoft announced that the Windows 8 Pro upgrade edition would increase five-fold, to $199.99; a Windows 8 (non-Pro) upgrade edition would be $119.99; and the Windows 8 Pro Pack (which upgrades plain Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro) would be $99.99. (See this Windows blog page for more info.)

Needless to say, that's a massive incentive to do it before Jan. 31, 2013. Before then, you can download the $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade from Microsoft’s "Upgrade now and save" page and the $14.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade from the company’s Windows Upgrade Offer page. Microsoft’s Program Information page provides a host of details on the $14.99 offer.

As we outlined earlier, upgrading from Windows 7, Vista, or XP differs in terms of which content you get to keep. However, the actual upgrade process is virtually the same across all three versions. You can also download the upgrade using any computer and apply it to a different computer by storing it on a USB stick or saving it as an ISO file to burn onto a DVD.

Downloading the Upgrade

If you bought a Windows 7 PC on or after June 2, 2012, and before January 31, 2013, go to the Windows Upgrade Offer page to get the $14.99 deal, which you can register for until Feb. 28, 2013...

 

 

At the $14.99-special Web page, select your region and then fill in the relevant details, such as your name, your e-mail address, and when and where you bought your Windows 7 PC, on the screen shown below.

 

 

After you fill out that information, another page pops up asking for your Windows 7 product key...

 

 

After you enter the product key, you should receive a response page telling you that the registration was successful. This page will provide you with a registration ID and instructions on how to look for a “promo code” you’ll need to proceed...

 

 

The code will show up in your e-mail, or you can fetch it by manually checking the offer site, as shown here...

 

 

If you choose not to check the site, check your e-mail: Microsoft will send you a message containing your promo key and a link to download the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. (Check your spam folders if it doesn't show up.) In that e-mail, click on the button to Download the Upgrade Assistant. The button opens a Web page called Upgrade to Windows 8.

At the Web page, click on the button called Download Upgrade Assistant. That will prompt you to download a file named Windows8-UpgradeAssistant.exe, which you can save in a convenient spot on your PC. (Microsoft’s Upgrade to Windows 8 page provides full details about the Upgrade Assistant. Incidentally, you can also download the Upgrade Assistant from here and run it before you do anything else, to see if the Windows 8 upgrade is right for your PC.)

If it's before Jan. 31, 2013, and you purchased your Windows 7 PC before June 2, 2012, or you’re upgrading from Vista or XP, then you’ll need to head to this Microsoft page to grab the $39.99 deal. At that page, click on the button that says: “Download Pro for $39.99 ERP.” That will prompt you to download the Windows8-UpgradeAssistant.exe file.

 

Running the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant

Whether you scored the $14.99 deal or the $39.99 offer (or you have to pay the higher prices later), the Upgrade Assistant process is the same.

Double-click the Windows8-UpgradeAssistant.exe file to start the ball rolling. The Upgrade Assistant will check your Windows environment to see which applications and devices are compatible with Windows 8, and which ones are not. In Windows XP and Vista, the Upgrade Assistant will also remind you that you’ll have to reinstall your compatible applications and hardware devices in Windows 8.

After the compatibility scan completes, click on the compatibility details to see the full list. The items listed under “For you to review” are the ones deemed incompatible with Windows 8. Each item should provide a link that you can click on to view more information. In some cases, you may need to upgrade an application or driver; in other cases, you may have to find a replacement. The items listed under “Compatible,” like you can see in the sample screen below, are the ones that should work fine under Windows 8...

 

 

To proceed, close the compatibility-details list and click Next. In Windows 7, the Upgrade Assistant asks whether you want to keep your Windows settings, personal files, and apps; just your personal files; or nothing. In Windows Vista and XP, the program asks if you want to keep personal files, or keep nothing. Choose the appropriate option (depending on what you want to keep) and then click Next.

 

 

The Upgrade Assistant displays a screen prompting you to order the Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $39.99. Click on the order button...

 

 

The Review Your Order screen gives you an option to include Windows 8 on a DVD for an additional $14.99. Choose that option if you wish to receive the physical media. Leave it off if you just want the downloaded file. Then click Checkout...

 

  

At the next screen, fill in your billing address and other information. Click Next...

 

 

Select a payment method at the next screen, either credit card or PayPal. Click Next.

 

  

At the "Confirm your order" information screen, the shopping cart will show a price tag of $39.99 plus tax. Those of you who purchased a Windows 7 PC on or after June 2, 2012, should enter the promo code that you received in your upgrade e-mail into the promo code field on the form. Click Apply. You should then see the price drop to $14.99 plus tax, as it did here...

 

 

The rest of you can leave the order as is. Click the Buy button to complete the purchase.

The next screen thanks you for your order and displays your product key. You’ll also receive a confirmation e-mail with the details of your order and the Windows 8 p

Downloading & Running the Installer

Once you've clicked Next, the Upgrade Assistant will download Windows 8. You may want to take a nice, long coffee break at this point, since the download will run for quite a while.

Set it to work, and the Upgrade Assistant will check the downloaded file for integrity and get it ready, tasks that might extend your coffee break a bit further. Pour another cup.

 

 

After the download is complete, the Upgrade Assistant pops up to offer you three choices:

1) You can install the software now to upgrade your current PC (the one to which you downloaded the file).

2) You can create the installation media on a USB drive or an ISO file (which you can burn onto a DVD) to install on a different PC.

3) You can download the installation software on your current PC to install at a later time.

Pick the appropriate option and then click the Close button. For example, if you want to apply the upgrade to a different computer than your current one, pick option 2 to create the installation media. Otherwise, pick the first option to install it now on your current PC.

 

  

The Upgrade Assistant takes you through a few screens, getting itself ready to install Windows 8. A "Ready to install" screen confirms your selection. Click Install to proceed.

 

 

The Windows 8 installation will kick off and then reboot your PC at some point. Your job for now is to just sit back and let it do its stuff, or grab yet another cup of coffee. By now, decaf is probably a good idea.

 

 

After your PC reboots, you’ll see the Windows 8 Personalize screen. Choose the color scheme you wish to use for your Start screen. Click Next.

 

 

At the Settings screen, choose whether you want to use Express settings or customize each setting separately. This screen explains the options that are enabled if you choose Express settings. You can always choose Express settings for now and then go back to tweak individual settings after Windows 8 has been set up. In that case, click the "Use express settings" button...

 

   

At the "Sign in to your PC" screen, enter your e-mail address if you already have a Microsoft account and wish to use that to log in to Windows 8. Then click Next. Otherwise, click on the link to "Sign up for a new e-mail address" if you want to create a Microsoft account, or click on the link to "Sign in without a Microsoft account" if you want to use a local account for Windows 8. You can also click on the Skip button to use the same account that you used with your previous version of Windows. For this example, we’ll use an existing Microsoft account...

 

 

If you use a Microsoft account, Windows will prompt you for its password...

  

  

Then, at the "Add security info" screen, Windows will prompt you to confirm or enter a phone number that can be used to verify your account, should you ever forget your password.

    

 

Windows 8 creates your account and finalizes your settings. In the meantime, you’ll see a quick tutorial on how to use the hot corners in the new OS. (It’s well worth your time viewing it, if it’s new to you.) Windows takes a few more minutes to ready your PC and install some apps, and then finally you’re plopped onto the Start screen where you can start snooping around your new OS...

   

   

Your next step may be to confirm exactly which items were retained from your old operating system and which items are gone. If you upgraded from Windows 7, then all of your applications, customized settings, and personal files should be intact. If you upgraded from Windows XP or Vista, on the other hand, you’ll need to reinstall your applications and possibly recreate your customized settings.

Upgrading to a new version of Windows is always time-consuming. But the road to Windows 8 is certainly less bumpy than previous upgrades. And since the $14.99 and $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade deals won’t last much longer, now is the right time to upgrade your current PC if you want to dive into Windows 8. Once you’re in and running, you’ll then want to check out our mega-guide, “Windows 8 Mega-Guide: 50 Insider Tips” to turn yourself into a Windows 8 pro (small “p,” there, mind you) in no time.

Read More