Adrian Kingsley-Hughes pens a rant on Windows 8, calling it 'awful': "I'm now ready to sum up my Windows 8 experience with a single word: awful. I could have chosen a number of other words - terrible, horrible, painful and execrable all spring to mind - but it doesn't matter, the sentiment is the same." I've been using Windows 8 Release Preview on both my ZenBook and my regular desktop since its release, and here's my short review: "I like it." Issues a-plenty, but for what is essentially a 1.0 release - not bad. It's a hell of a lot better than other releases which were similar in scope (Mac OS X 10.0, KDE 4.0).

"A newly leaked 56-page document sheds some light on the company's plans, for what it calls the 'Xbox 720'. The presentation appears to be from August 2010, and references future improvements like SmartGlass, a Metro dashboard, and Xbox TV apps. Alongside its incremental Xbox 360 updates, Microsoft has a clear vision for its next-generation Xbox 720 console - we've dug into its plans to bring you the best bits." It's important to note the documentation is already two years old - a lifetime in the technology world. Still interesting, though. Now if you don't mind - back to Half-Life 2 on my plain old soon-to-be-outdated Xbox 360.

"Long before the coming of the World Wide Web, the Minitel provided a sort of internet-in-one-country. Long before Facebook, Google or Twitter - millions of French people went 'online' daily to search for information, to book their holidays, chat to strangers or seek cheap (or not so cheap) sexual thrills."

"One of the casualties of Nokia's latest cuts is Meltemi, the company's effort to create a new Linux-based operating system for low-end smartphones. The project was aimed at offering smartphones at prices that neither Android or Windows Phone could easily reach, but also would have required Nokia to try to woo developers for yet another operating system." I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's Elop's job to make Nokia as miserable as possible, so that when Microsoft finally makes its move, it can be seen a saviour rather than a predator. Everything that can be cut has to be cut to dive the price down.

Another fantastic article at The Verge, this time covering Vizio in-depth, written by Nilay Patel. "Vizio is one of the best-kept secrets in consumer technology. The tiny Southern California company consistently sells the most HDTVs in America, but it's a sure bet that you know virtually nothing about it. Hell, most people don't even know Vizio is an American company, even though all but three of its 417 employees work in the US."

It's just a tiny example, but it illustrates a far bigger problem. Adam Becker: "So what's the problem? It's that this innocuous little guy is now being used for all sorts of disparate purposes, and every time it's used for another action, it loses more and more of its meaning." This is what happens when consistency is thrown out the door, and developers get little to no guidance from operating systems' parent companies. Mobile applications and the web are a UX free-for-all, and as a result, established iconography and concepts are used out of context and in wildly varying ways. Just because you can code a mobile application doesn't mean you know anything about user interface design - this lack of guidance is where both Apple and Google have failed miserably.

And finally, finally, finally, Vizio has fully unveiled its brand new line up of laptops and all-in-ones. The successful American TV maker announced its new kit at CES in January, catching my eyes with a set of beautiful, distinctive laptops and all-in-ones, and, as they promised back then, they have now unveiled all. This has want written all over it. Update: Rejoice: non-glossy, matte screens on the laptop.

The average computer user might think that the number of languages their operating system supports is pretty long. OSX supports 22 languages, and Microsoft claims to support 96, but they're counting different regional dialects multiple times. But there are over 6000 languages, and though many of them are spoken by a dwindling few, there are some languages that are spoken by millions of people that are supported very poorly, if at all, by computer operating systems. The reason for the support being poor is that the people who speak those languages are poor, and are not good "markets." It's only because of the efforts of a few dedicated people that computing support for languages such as Burmese, Sinhalese, Pali, Cambodian, and Lao have been as good as they are, but the trends for the future are not good.

And the burning platform is still, uhm, burning. "Chief Executive Stephen Elop is placing hopes of a turnaround on a new range of smartphones called Lumia, which use largely untried Microsoft software. But Lumia sales have so far been slow, disappointing investors." It's a shame to see a once proud company in such a downward spiral, but alas, it's the way of business. If you get complacent - as Nokia had gotten - you will fail.

"All major operating systems, from Windows to OS X to iOS to Android, are all fully customizable and manageable using either first- or third-party tools. Google's Chrome OS is no exception. As part of our ongoing check-in with the revamped operating system and new, more robust Chrome hardware, today we'll be spending some time with the Chrome OS management console, looking at whether it makes Chrome OS a viable choice for businesses."

After a proper teardown, iFixit concludes that the new MacBook Pro has no user-serviceable parts at all, which some think is a really bad thing. I honestly don't know - I mean, my ZenBook isn't particularly user-serviceable either, and my smartphones, tablets, and whatnot are pretty much entirely soldered together as well. What do you guys make of this?

"The Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation is poised to 'define and promote an open, standards-based approach to heterogeneous computing that will provide a common hardware specification and broad support ecosystem to make it easier for software developers to deliver innovative applications that can take greater advantage of today's modern processors.' The HSA Foundation goes without Intel's support." Interesting.

"Etoile intends to be an innovative, GNUstep-based, user environment built from the ground up on highly modular and light components. It is created with project and document orientation in mind, in order to allow users to create their own workflow by reshaping or recombining provided Services (a.k.a. Applications) and Components. Flexibility and modularity on both User Interface and code level should allow us to scale from handheld to desktop environments." A new release. An actual one. Awesome. And yes, OSNews has issues with diacritic marks, so don't ask.

So, iOS 6 will make its way to devices all the way back to the 3GS... But many key features are not available at all on the 3GS, and even the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 are seeing features held back. "Some features, like the VIP List for email, the Offline Reading List, and Shared Photo Stream won't work on the iPhone 3GS. Even flagship iOS features like Flyover, turn-by-turn navigation, and FaceTime over cellular won't work on recent devices like the iPhone 4 or the iPad 2 - not to mention the iPhone 3GS." Pretty scummy and misleading.