The slides say Windows 8 will start itself by detecting when you approach the PC and log you on by automatically identifying your face. Sure. Beam me up, Scotty. Don't forget to shave.
There's also a new one-button reset that lets you re-install Windows to its factory-fresh condition, with all of your data and settings intact. Right.
In the same-old, same-old category:
We have a promise of (yet another) new, improved Help system. Microsoft has been promising that since Windows 286.
And we're getting a "Windows Store" where you can buy applications and nifty Microsoft hardware like the ever-so-popular Zune and Windows phones like the Kin. Oh wait a sec. I guess the Kin isn't going to be around. (See Nancy Gohring's "Update: Microsoft kills the Kin" report.)
Any semblance between Microsoft's Windows Store and Apple's App Store are purely coincidental, of course.
If the Windows Store sounds familiar, it should. Windows Marketplace filled much the same role for many years, until Microsoft zapped it in November 2008. Windows Marketplace, tied to the now-defunct Digital Locker Assistant, let consumers download and buy third-party Windows software. It was cumbersome, expensive, off-putting to small developers, and, ultimately, utterly unused.
Hard to believe that this time, Microsoft could find the magic combination to turn Windows Marketplace into a competitor to Apple's App Store. I, for one, won't hold my breath.
So there you have it. The predictable. The whiz-bang unlikely. And the same old stuff, only slightly warmed over.
As far as I'm concerned, all we've seen so far about Windows 8 is a load of hot air. Where's the beef?
This article, "What do we really know about Windows 8?," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog.
