MICROSOFT SHOWS OFF NEW 'WINDOWS 8' OPERATING SYSTEM

                                         
Microsoft Corp showed off a version of its next operating system, highlighting touchscreen features optimized for tablet computers, at the All Things Digital technology conference on Wednesday.

The world's largest software company is expected to launch the new system, code-named Windows 8, in the next 18 months, as it races to catch up with the success of Apple Inc's iPad, which went on sale over a year ago.

In a demonstration at the D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, a Microsoft executive showed a starting page that resembles Microsoft's latest phone software, with live 'tiles' manipulated by pressing and swiping the screen.

The head of Microsoft's Windows unit, Steven Sinofsky, said the product did not yet have a name, and did not say when it would be available.

The release date is a "Defense Department secret", joked Sinofsky, adding that it would not be this autumn.

Microsoft typically aims for 24 to 36 months between major Windows versions, suggesting a launch date for the next Windows between October 2011 and October 2012.

Sinofsky, who said Microsoft was "not out of the game" in tablets, promised more details at a developers' conference in September.

He did say Microsoft is working to integrate Internet telephone service Skype into the new system, following its agreement to purchase the company last month.

The demonstration shows Microsoft is making progress toward the new operating system, which it promises will run on a range of hardware devices from traditional PCs to laptops and tablets, using both touchscreen and mouse and keyboard commands.

Five months ago, Sinofsky showed off a crude version of the new Windows system working on ARM Holdings chips -- which work better on mobile devices due to their low power requirements -- at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

That signaled a change in emphasis for Microsoft toward mobile devices, although the new Windows will still run on chips made by traditional partner Intel Corp.

Windows 8 is on its way, and it'll be a departure from the Windows we know and love today. That was the message Microsoft sent Wednesday afternoon at the annual D: All Things Digital Conference, taking place near Los Angeles.

                                  

At the conference, Microsoft presented a radically redesigned Windows interface: Instead of the traditional desktop with windows, the taskbar, Start menu, and so on, Microsoft demonstrated an interface that looks reminiscent to Windows Phone 7, its smartphone operating system--complete with touch-friendly live tiles.

Microsoft also discussed features of the Windows 8 operating system at the Computex tech conference in Taiwan.

Microsoft also posted a video that shows some of the new features. Most notably, the company says that it's designed for not only laptops and desktops, but for tablets as well (which makes sense, given its big, touch-friendly buttons and visual style). The new tile-based interface replaces the traditional Start menu, according to Microsoft.

Macworld's Jason Snell notes on Twitter that "Windows 8 will run standard Windows apps, support standard Windows peripherals." Microsoft's video shows regular Windows apps running in a separate, traditional desktop mode that you can switch to with the press of a button.

Apps made specifically for Windows 8 will be a bit of a different beast--they'll "use the power of HTML5, tapping into the native capabilities of Windows using standard JavaScript and HTML," the company says. It remains to be seen if this means that Windows 8-specific apps will be based solely on HTML5, JavaScript, and other Web technologies, or if they'll be some tie-ins to more traditional app development tools that Microsoft offers.

What's interesting about Windows 8 is that it's another step in PCs becoming more tablet-like. Apple is moving toward making Mac OS X more iPad-like with Lion's various iOS-inspired features, although Windows 8 seems to go one step further with merging the tablet and the PC. There will probably be some resistance to these changes, and we'll have to wait and see how it all works out in practice, but the writing's on the wall.

Here's some rough video of Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows planning, hardware and ecosystem at Microsoft, showing off some of the operating system's features at the conference.

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