After nearly two years of waiting, Microsoft will finally unveil its plans for the next version of Windows, currently known as Windows 8, at is developer oriented conference known as BUILD. While all attendees of the conference will be able to try out Windows 8 first hand, Microsoft isn’t leaving everyone else in the cold: all the keynotes will be streamed live from the conference’s website.
The announcement, which came as a sigh of relief to all of those who will not be able to attend the event, was made via Twitter.
So far, Microsoft has been reluctant to bringing forward that many details of Windows 8, not revealing any at all until a few months back. The Redmond company first took the wraps off the system’s new user interface, aimed at tablets and other multitouch devices, at an event this past June. Windows 8’s new look is tile-based, closely resembling the user interface found on Windows Phone 7. Later on, Microsoft launched its Building Windows 8 blog, where it has shared several tidbits of the new system, such much-improved boot-up times, a ribbon user interface within Explorer and streamlined confirmation dialogs, also within Explorer.
Despite these small tidbits, we don’t yet know how all of these pieces will fit together within the product itself. At BUILD, Microsoft will finally unveil the bigger picture of how Windows 8 will work in the real world, as well as a release timeline. Hopefully, all questions regarding the sweeping user interface changes within the new system will finally make sense, and we’ll get more information about how accessible the standard Windows interface will be. BUILD combines two other previews conferences, PDC and WinHEC, which are aimed at software and hardware makers respectively, into one single event.
If you’re hoping to finally get your hands on Windows 8, you’re in luck, since we found out yesterday that it’s possible that the pre-beta build that will be handed out to attendants today will also be available publicly for every enthusiast to try it. Alleged screenshots of this 81xx build were also leaked yesterday, yet they were not too revealing, in terms of its features.
To watch BUILD live: simply head to the event’s website at 9 AM (Pacific Standard Time), both today and tomorrow, which is September 13th and 14th respectively. We’ll bring the news from the event as they happen, on Windows 8 and any other product that might be announced.
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