Windows

The Acer Aspire V5 isn’t a bad-looking machine, considering its price point. It’s heavier than it looks, but that heaviness translates into denseness, which translates into the machine feeling sturdy and stable. It almost looks like an Ultrabook – it’s relatively slim, it has a simple, sleek overall design, and an edge-to-edge glass display. But does this laptop’s performance live up to its prettiness? Read on to find out.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Twist is the latest in a string of Windows 8-running tablet-laptop hybrids, and it’s a little different from the competition. Mainly, it’s a business-oriented tablet-laptop (excuse me, tablet-Ultrabook) hybrid that stays true (sort of) to the ThinkPad line’s traditional, if somewhat boring, aesthetic.

A year and a half ago, the Acer M5-481PT would have been a revelation. A Windows 8 Ultrabook, the M5 sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive (with 20GB SSD cache), a 14-inch 10-point multitouch screen, and a DVD-RW drive. It’s an impressively robust hardware package, especially for its budget pricetag of $800.

The Acer Aspire 7600U-UR308 is an impressive-looking system, with a large, 27-inch touchscreen, edge-to-edge glass bezel, and clear glass base. However, it’s also got a mobile processor, which means it’s less powerful than its desktop-processor-sporting counterparts.

Lenovo's Yoga is aptly named -- it's flexible in more than one way. Not only can this Ultrabook be used as a laptop and a tablet, its screen can actually swivel around the hinge 360 degrees to maximize the tablet experience.

Toshiba’s Satellite P845t-S4310 is an interesting mix of budget laptop and all-purpose machine. It’s bigger and bulkier than most of the sleek machines on the market today, and its performance leaves quite a bit to be desired – even within its class. But it’s not quite at the price point ($800 or less) of a budget model, probably thanks to its sturdy aluminum body and premium speakers. This laptop is a Best Buy exclusive.

The HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 is a cleanly designed, good performing Windows 8 laptop with a nice array of ports and good input ergonomics. The only issue is weight--the digitizer for the touchscreen, support for it and the overall build quality adds quite a bit of heft to the unit which travels at 5.3 pounds with AC adapter. That's heavy for a laptop with only a 14-inch display.

Windows Phone SDK 8.0 gives developers extensive features, snappier code, lots of help, and the option to code in JavaScript and HTML

Visual Studio is no longer simply an IDE, no longer a place you go just to write and debug C/C++ code. It has long since become something of a development mashup. It's where you go to tackle any task in the development process, regardless of the target. It's where you head to do your LightSwitch development, your SQL Server development, your Web application development, your Windows Azure development, and your ASP.Net or Windows Forms development in C#, F#, VB.Net, and -- oh, yes -- good old Visual C++. Naturally, it's where you build applications for http://www.infoworld.com/category/tags/microsoft-windows-azure and Windows RT.

Microsoft's efforts to woo mobile-device users may leave traditional desktop PC owners feeling abandoned.

Much of the attention being paid to this week's Windows 8 launch focuses on the new Metro-style interface and the fact that Microsoft is extending its desktop OS to tablets and smartphones. But for enterprises, the real story is the way Microsoft has integrated Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and the Hyper-V hypervisor to create an unmatched system for running virtualized environments.

As you might guess, this new Windows 8-based Sony all-in-one isn't your average AIO. Inside the modest exterior beats the heart of an Ultrabook, along with a ten-point multitouch screen and a built-in battery. So you can either think of the Tap 20 (also known by the sexy name SVJ20215CXW) as a smallish AIO or a really big tablet. In reality, it's a little of both.