Windows 8 Metro Apps Can Run Even If Suspended Tanks to Background Tasks

Some aspects for Metro apps in Windows 8 can remain active and continue running even if the user has pushed them to the background, suspending them. 

The new Metro platform of the next major iteration of the Windows client suspends any opened Metro apps that customers are not using, providing a fully immersive experience only for the application that’s in focus. 

 “The foreground app is assumed to be the most important to the user, so this app receives all the resources of the system,” Microsoft reveals. 

This is a new app behavior for Windows, and the vast majority of suspended apps will not run any code, and thus, not consume hardware resources, or drain the battery. 

“A suspended app remains suspended until the user resumes it by bringing the app back to the foreground. With this model of app behavior, the user experience is never impacted by lags or delays caused by the execution of unimportant background apps,” the company explained. 

“In addition, reducing unnecessary background activity optimizes battery life on a variety of form factors. The time taken to resume a suspended app is negligible and would appear to be almost instantaneous to most users.”

At the same time, there are a number of scenarios in which Metro apps, even if suspended, need to continue performing specific operations. 

Thanks to Background Tasks, developers can equip their projects with this type of functionality, Microsoft revealed. 

The Redmond company is even offering a free whitepaper dubbed “Introduction to Background Tasks” via the Download Center, to provide devs with insight into how to get their suspended apps to still run code. 

“Windows Developer Preview provides a number of features to make an app look alive with content even when the app is suspended:

• Windows push notifications can be used to keep the app tile fresh and up-to-date. 

• Playback Manager can be used to play audio in the background. 

• The background transfer API can be used to download and upload files in the background. 

• File share contracts can be used to share data between apps,” the company added.

Intel Will Add SSD Caching Support to Its P67 Motherboards – Report

Intel is getting ready to add support for the so called Smart Response SSD caching technology to some of its older motherboards based on the P67 Express chipset, although the company said previously this wasn't possible.According to a report posted just recently by VR-Zone, the Santa Clara chip giant plans towards the end of next month to add support for the Smart Response technology to a series of motherboards based on the P67 PCH (platform controller hub).

The LGA 1155 boards in question are the mid-range DP67BA and DP67DE, two solutions that were released at about the same time with the Intel Sandy Bridge processors.

This move is a bit odd considering Intel stated previously the P67 chipset can't support SSD caching through the SRT (Smart Response Technology).

No information regarding how will this technology be implemented in the P67 chipsets is available at this time.

However, it's extremely likely that SRT support will be introduced via a BIOS update and a series of new drivers.

Right now we don't know if Intel plans to enable SSD caching in other P67 motherboards, but it goes to show how many of the chipset features are just artificial limitations for product differentiation, that aren't based on any specific hardware capabilities.

SSD caching allows users to speed up their storage system by pairing together a solid state disk with an HDD and using the former as a fast cache memory for the hard drive.

Real world testing has revealed that the SRT offers a tangible speed improvement over using just a hard drive, although its has its limitations especially as far as boot times are concerned.

In related news, the end of October should also mark the introduction of the Intel DZ68PL and DZ68AF motherboards based on the Z68 Express chipset.

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HTC Amaze 4G, the smartphone that was long rumored to be on its way to the airwaves of T-Mobile in the United States, is now official, with an October 12th release date attached to it.

The handset has been unveiled with a price tag of $259.99 (around 190 Euros) with the signing of a two year contract agreement and after a $50 mail-in-rebate. It will become available for pre-order on October 10th on the carrier's website. 




 The new mobile phone is being launched exclusively on the airwaves of T-Mobile, and is said to include one of the most advanced camera experiences that any other mobile phone out there can offer. 


The handset sports an 8-megapixel photo snapper, which can offer not only 1080p HD video recording capabilities, but can also deliver zero shutter lag and a wide range of other advanced camera features. 


The wireless carrier notes that this is a backside illuminated camera sensor, which should prove great when used in low light. Complemented by dual LED flash, it also offers:


- SmartShot, which captures five photos and creates the best shot using clear faces with smiles and no blinking.


- PerfectPics, which is a separate album in the gallery created by scoring and filtering the best photos to the surface. PerfectPics prioritizes photos by using criteria such as important calendar events, the presence of faces, and overall picture quality.


- Additional innovative camera features first introduced on the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide such as SweepShot, ClearShot HDR and BurstShot. 




Running under Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, the mobile phone also sports the HTC Sense user interface, and can provide users with a great experience while on the go. 


It features a dual core application processor inside (Qualcomm Snapdragon S3), clocked in at 1.5 GHz, and boasts a large 4.3-inch qHD super LCD multi-touch display, great for viewing photos or videos while on the go. 


The new mobile phone also comes with NFC capabilities, support for the carrier's HSPA+ 42 network, and with T-Mobile TV, HTC Watch and additional apps and services. 

Huawei Blaze Present in the UK on September 30,

Android fans seem to live in the UK will be the first to get their hands on Blaze Huawei's highly anticipated Android smartphone and Vision.Announced last month, both phones have been confirmed for Q4 release in the UK, but there is no price tag or release date has been disclosed to date.Fortunately, a large retailer Phones 4u has issued an official statement announced that Huawei Blaze will hit shelves on September 30.According Phones 4u, Huawei will Blaze price of 99.95 pounds (about 154 USD or 115 USD) on the PAYG (pay as you go) on a variety of UK operators.It looks like the big retailers will have "exclusive leads to market" on Blaze Huawei. Phones 4u are also secured distribution rights for smartphones Huawei's vision, but no details about the handset prices or release dates have been disclosed yet."The Blaze Huawei is one of a number of pay as you go exclusive we've secured for our customers in time for Christmas, make sure we have a wide range of latest technology in a variety of colors and price points, offering something for everyone," said Scott Hooton, Phone 4u Director of Trade.As expected, Huawei Blaze will be delivered with the operating system Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board, along with access to the Android Market.In addition, this phone has a 3.2 inch touchscreen display HVGA capacitive, 3.2 megapixel camera, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM, and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 16GB)."The Blaze Huawei not only great looking, high-specification smartphone, powered by the Android system, and full of great features - it's also reasonably priced and will prove very popular with British youth market through 2011 and pay as you go Christmas season ' gifting ', "said Hooton.Blaze Huawei will be available in black, but also includes white and pink will additionally be included in the sales package.In this case, Phones 4u announced that they will be the only retailer to exclusively offer interchangeable white cover.

AMD Radeon E6460 supports Multiple Displays

Advanced Micro Devices makes a point to have a multi-display technology is more flexible, which is shown on how to implement something like that in the latest embedded, entry-level GPU.

While low-end graphics processing unit, such as those used in HTPC and embedded markets, is not expected to have a strong specification, there is one feature that can help.

The ability to handle more than one monitor at once can be an advantage both in multimedia tasks and business, company or industry, because it increases productivity.

Knowing this, Advanced Micro Devices built E6460 discrete graphics processor for the embedded segment.

Basically, it is part of the powerful Radeon E6760, which means system designers can make machines that have both working together.

It has superior multi-display technology Eyefinity generic over the fact that, not just three, four monitors are supported.

BGA package includes 512 MB of GDDR5 VRAM and third-generation UVD (Unified Video decoder), which can decode two HD video streams at the same time, encoded in H.264, VC-1, MPEG2 or MPEG4 format.

AMD is providing support for newcomers to HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2, as well as for DirectX 11 (obviously).

"AMD's Radeon E6460 GPU provides high value, small footprint, and supplies requested by existing customers is embedded," said Richard Jaenicke, director of Business for AMD's Embedded Client.

"With a footprint-compatible subset of the high performance E6760 GPU AMD, the AMD Radeon E6460 GPU enables broad scalable graphics and multimedia performance in a single board design."

Supply availability Radeon E6460 is scheduled for five years, during which time it managed to land in applications such as digital signage solutions, casino gaming, industrial control and instrumentation systems.

The official release made ​​during the Embedded Systems Conference East, which took place in Boston, from September 26 to 29.

Windows 8 Developer Preview Downloads Beyond Build 8102

There are no less than three flavors of Windows Developer Preview available for download for the early adopters around the world.

But at the same time, Microsoft offers additional downloads, access to resources is rather limited. Basically, the tester applies only to the MSDN subscription can get their hands on all the Developer Preview release of Windows exceeded Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3).

Developer Preview window with the Developer Tools and Applications (x64) - DVD (English), Windows Developer Preview Apps (x86) - DVD (English) and Picture Windows Developer Apps (x64) - DVD (English) are three copies of Windows 8 M3 Build 8102 that all the testers can download from Microsoft.

7 download more that live on MSDN, but offered only to subscribers. For example, subscribe to the Redmond company's developer portal offering early adopters Updates for Windows Developer Preview (KB2619246) (x64) - MSU (UK) and Update for Windows Developer Preview (KB2619246) (x86) - MSU (UK).

Refresh is designed to handle the problem as follows, according to the software giant: "lost network connectivity after balancing when using a server such as Dell 410/710 with the Broadcom LOM and x520 Intel NIC adapters are installed in the PCIe slot."

Developers can also grab the Windows Developer Preview WDK (x86 and x64) - (UK) through MSDN, and they may have recognized a new version of the Windows Driver Kit.

There are also new versions of Windows and Deployment Assessment Kit (Windows ADK) is available for MSDN subscribers, namely Windows Developer Preview ADK (x86 and x64) - (UK).

Downloads mentioned above along with Symbol Developer Preview Windows (x64) - (UK) and the symbol preview window Developer (x86) - (UK), as well as new versions of the Windows Driver Foundation - Windows Developer Preview WDF Co-installer (x86 and x64) - (UK).

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