The CShell UI/UX ...
Hi Zax. Thanks for checking in. I can't say I'm too excited about this as of yet since Satya in his infinite wisdom or lack of same canned Windows 10 Mobile for virtually all practical purposes . I am interested to see what comes of the Qualcomm/Microsoft alliance for Windows 10 for ARM and perhaps we'll see a 'Surface phone' one of these years. That might interest me and expand my mobile wireless computing usage and horizon..
This from Neowin: neowin.net
>> Microsoft has been testing CShell builds on phones internally for several months, but it's still far from clear if Microsoft intends to bring it to existing handsets as an official update.
The company will still need to test the CShell UX on existing smartphones with the help of its Windows Insider community, so it's pretty much inevitable that it will make CShell available to Windows 10 Mobile handsets in Insider Preview form, at least. But that's no guarantee that those devices will be officially supported when CShell rolls out as part of a future Windows 10 update.
When Microsoft released the original Windows 10 Mobile upgrade, it excluded many of the devices used by Insiders who helped to test and refine the OS before its rollout. And when it released the Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update in April, it did so for just 13 handsets, again cutting off its official support for numerous Windows phones that had been running Insider Previews.
In his report today, Zac speculated - as I did last week - that "Microsoft might want to save CShell for its next major attempt at Windows phone", rather than supporting it on existing devices. Microsoft is believed to be working on a new class of mobile device; popularly referred to as the 'Surface phone', it's not expected to launch until sometime next year, and it's not hard to imagine where CShell fits into those plans.
Last week, Microsoft and Qualcomm announced a new generation of Windows 10 'Mobile PCs' using Snapdragon 835 chips, along with eSIMs to ensure that they can remain 'always connected' - but that announcement related specifically to notebooks and 2-in-1s, rather than smartphones. <<
>> Qualcomm, Microsoft announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with gigabit LTE
Not just for smartphones, Qualcomm wants its latest processor to be a PC platform.
Peter Bright
Ars Technica
5/31/2017
arstechnica.com
Qualcomm's Snapdragon ARM-based systems-on-chips are mainstays of the smartphone world, but the company is now positioning them as more than just smartphone processors: in conjunction with Microsoft and the new Windows 10 for ARM processors, Qualcomm is now pitching the chips as components of a new PC platform that brings together the best of the PC and the smartphone.
The Snapdragon 835 chip, incorporating Qualcomm's latest X16 LTE modem, forms the basis of the Snapdragon Mobile PC Platform. Qualcomm claims that using the Snapdragon platform will offer a combination of the PC form factor and breadth of software with features that are standard in smartphones: on-the-go connectivity, light weight, silent operation, long battery life, and no fan.
<< Big snip ... full text at link above >>
Windows 10 for ARM is Microsoft's second attempt at building a version of Windows for ARM chips. That previous effort, named Windows RT, flopped on the market due to a crippling shortage of software. This time around, things may do better, not least because the new operating system will include x86 emulation, giving it the ability to run 32-bit Windows desktop applications unmodified. Given the laptop form factor, we're not expecting this capability to be restricted to, for example, plugged-in scenarios. Instead, we'd expect that they'll be able to seamlessly run x86 applications without any obvious indication that they're doing so. <<
- Eric L. - |
