For more information on what’s included in this update, see this post.

After a couple of housekeeping posts, Mr. Sinofsky provided a post that introduced the Windows 8 team, listing 35 different teams that are building various features of Windows 8. Many of the teams are similar to those from the Windows 7 days, but there are a number of teams that provide some hints about features to come, such as the App Store that has been speculated to arrive with the new version.

The most recent two posts on Building Windows 8 detail the new file copy and conflict resolution functionality in Windows 8. In the first post, Microsoft shows off the new design of the file actions dialog, noting that all file operations will now be displayed in a single window. Additionally, the conflict resolution has been streamlined to make it easier for users to determine which file to keep. The second post goes into detail on the design process of these features, showing various iterations that were tested.

The Building Windows 8 blog is sure to be the place to watch, at least until the Build conference next month where Microsoft has stated they will reveal much more about Windows 8.

This is just another sign that Microsoft will be killing off the Zune brand, likely folding their media properties into the Xbox brand (Xbox Music, Xbox Video, etc.).

Is this Best Buy trying to get rid of inventory in preparation for Microsoft discontinuing the Zune hardware?

Here are the pictures:

Pictures from MIX11 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Oh, and I also captured a short video clip:

The party on Wednesday night was rockin’!

You have to understand what you’re getting, though. In this post I’m going to outline some of the things that I like followed by some of the things that I don’t. Hopefully this will help you determine if a Windows 7-based slate like the Asus Eee Slate is right for you.

What I Like

Rather than jumping right into the negative things, I thought I’d tell you about the things I like about the Eee Slate:

• The Touchscreen: It’s awesome. It’s very responsive to both finger and pen input. Yes, that’s right … I said PEN input. I know some people don’t think that pen input is needed, but in my world it’s an absolute must. I’m an avid OneNote user and being able to use a pen to scribble notes and drawings is a dream. Additionally, since the Slate contains a Wacom digitizer, the pen is pressure sensitive, which makes sketching really nice.
• The Keyboard: The included bluetooth keyboard is very nice. It’s compact and has a great feel to it, which makes sense since it’s actually a Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 without the separate number pad.
• Performance: The Slate is very fast. With an i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD), it runs Windows 7 fluidly.
• Windows 7: In general, I love Windows 7. As a tablet operating system, however, it leaves a bit to be desired (which I’ll cover in the What I Don’t Like section). On the upside, it’s not nearly as bad as many would make it out to be. The pen input and handwriting recognition is awesome. The on-screen keyboard is serviceable, at least for hunt and pecking. I can’t imagine trying to touch-type on it for long missives, though.
• The Aero Flip 3D Button: The Eee Slate has a dedicated hardware button that engages the Aero Flip 3D task changer (the same as the Windows key + Tab combination on a keyboard does except that it’s “sticky” … it goes into the mode for a couple of seconds to allow you to cycle through without holding the button down). It’s an extremely convenient way to cycle through open programs.

What I Don’t Like:

Now that I’ve given you some of the things I like, here’s a few that are not so great:

• Windows 7: I know, I know.  I already said that I like Windows 7.  I do. But for use on a tablet pc, it has some downsides. First and foremost, most programs for Windows are not designed with touch input in mind. Microsoft has done a decent job of making the built-in Windows elements touch friendly enough, but third party programs often do not size their input boxes, checkboxes, buttons, etc. appropriately for touch based input. Some programs do not handle touch-based scrolling properly either. In general, the desktop operating system paradigm is not perfect for a completely touch-based device, but it’s workable until Windows 8 arrives next year.
• Reported Battery Life: Keep in mind that I’ve only had the Eee Slate for a day, so I haven’t had a chance to really test the battery performance. I’m not going to speak to real-world usage because of that, though other users have reported 3.5-4 hours of battery life, depending upon usage. The quoted battery life is 4.5 hours. I understand the reason behind it. The Eee Slate has a full-fledged i5 processor in it instead of a slightly scaled up mobile phone processor. That doesn’t mean that I don’t wish we had magical battery technology that let us get 20 hours on a system like this.
• Screen Rotation: I have a couple of gripes here. One is that it takes about 2 seconds to switch orientation, during which you are treated to a completely black screen. I’m not sure if this is a Windows thing, a video driver thing or a hardware thing. Whichever, it’s annoying. The second is that many applications really don’t handle the rotation very well.  If you are using a browser window in landscape mode not maximized, for instance, and then change to portrait mode, it will scale the window down appropriately. That’s great. However, if you then change back to landscape mode, the browser will not scale back up to the width that it was before. In general I find that running windows non-maximized is very frustrating on a slate. I wish that Windows 7 had a setting that you could turn on that would just force all windows to open in maximized mode all the time.

In general, the hardware is great. Windows 7 as a tablet OS is workable, though not great. If you understand what you’re getting going into a slate like this and it fits your needs, you’ll find that you love this device.

• Windows 7 isn’t as bad as everyone thinks for using on a tablet, though there are some areas where it’s just not as easy to use as it should be
• There’s some interesting work being done on tablet-y UIs for Windows 7, but they are a bit difficult to find on the net.  I’ll likely be posting about them as I come across them.
• The Eee Slate is a really nice PC in terms of specs, but it’s a little heavy and unweildy due to its larger size.  Definitely not for one-handed operation.

I’ll post more as I use it some more.

I’ve learned tonight that if you put a MicroSD card that is locked to one Samsung Focus into a different Samsung Focus and then hard reset the phone (Settings -> About -> Reset button)  it will force erase the card and lock it to the new phone.

While this doesn’t solve the problem of someone wanting to utilize the card in a different manner (as storage on another type of phone OS for example), it does at least prove that if you have to replace your WP7 hardware you can use your MicroSD card in your new Windows Phone 7 device.