Microsoft Reveals Windows 8 App Store & Advanced Power Management Features
Microsoft today revealed the first exclusive list of games which will be available in the preview version of Windows Store for Windows 8 Metro. The public preview of the app store along with the ‘Consumer Preview’ of the Windows 8 OS will be launched in late February, and one can expect some more high profile apps in the store in addition to the gaming apps being offered.
The games which will come out in the preview version will include the very popular Angry Birds, Reckless Racing, Crash Course and even Pinball and Solitaire. The latter two will in fact come pre-installed in the Consumer Preview of the operating system, while others will be available as optional downloads. As has been reported earlier, Microsoft will allow developers to submit free apps to the Windows Store as well as paid ones priced anywhere between $1.49 to $999, with the initial 30% proceeds going to Microsoft.
Along with this much anticipated preview launch, Microsoft is also planning to ramp up power management its new Metro operating system. Details of these new practices have been given on Microsoft’s blog series on Windows 8 development. While a lot of detail has been provided in the latest blog, the company emphasized more on “focus on the foreground” concept it has developed, which is quite similar to the way smartphone apps function, wherein background apps take minimal space and power and are based on a specific set of capabilities.
Microsoft has given a rough working of the three kind of apps which will function in Windows 8 Metro – those which actively run in the foreground, those in a suspended state and those performing a very specific activity.
In the excellent blog post, all three kinds of scenarios have been elaborated upon with examples of real occurrences. One such scenario given is about automatic termination of suspended apps in order to free up memory space, similar to OS X Lion. From the extensive details and lists provided about background processes for Metro apps as well as scenarios such as the one given above, it is quite clear that Microsoft is taking power management a notch higher in the new OS.