All sub 10-inch x86 Windows 8 tablets to ship with free Office apps

Microsoft apparently has a little trick up its sleeve to challenge small tablets like the iPad mini, Nexus 7, and Kindle Fire. All x86 Windows 8 tablets under 10 inches in size are getting free Microsoft Office apps.
That wasn’t the case with the first batch of Windows 8 tablets, of course. There weren’t any sub-10-inch models anyway, but while their ARM-powered Windows RT cousins came with Office Home and Student pre-installed, the x86 slates did not.
Why the change of heart? The fact that Windows RT tablets haven’t sold all that well might have something to do with it. Acer executives still firmly believe that Windows RT isn’t good for much more than confusing consumers. After all, it looks like Windows and it acts like Windows, but users can’t install some popular Windows desktop apps like iTunes — because they’re limited to ARM-friendly Windows Store downloads.
Another contributing factor might be the arrival of Intel’s next generation of processors. They’re packing more power and offering endurance that rivals ARM chips, and manufacturers may be more interested in offering the full Windows 8.1 experience to potential tablet buyers rather than the hobbled Windows RT version.
And Acer has proven that an Intel-powered Windows 8.1 tablet can even compete on price. The 8-inch Iconia W3 will be one of the first small Windows 8.1 slates on the market, and it’s expected to sell for iPad mini prices.
An iPad mini-sized tablet that comes with the full Microsoft Office suite installed for free? That’s a huge value-add for, say, parents who want to buy a compact tablet for the students in their homes.
If you’re after a bigger tablet and still want Office for free, it looks like you’ll need to stick with Windows RT. Microsoft’s blog post doesn’t show any indication that devices with a larger screen will be getting in on the freebies any time soon.
One more bit of good news to come from the announcement: all tablets that get Office apps for free will now be getting Outlook in addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Now read: Surface RT’s now-free keyboard nicely sums up Microsoft’s tablet failure

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Asus Transformer Book Trio: Windows 8 PC with an Android tablet for a screen

Can’t decide between a new Android tablet and a Windows 8 hybrid? Asus doesn’t think you should have to, so they’re offering up the Transformer Book Trio.
It looks like an ordinary tablet-notebook hybrid, but there’s a big difference. The Asus PC dock — the keyboard unit — isn’t just keys, a touchpad, and a spare battery. It’s actually got its own mainboard, a Haswell Core i7 processor, a 33Whr battery, and up to 1TB of built-in storage. The PC dock runs Windows 8 — or more likely Windows 8.1 by the time it hits store shelves.
All that’s missing is the display, but it’s got all the ports you need to hook up a standard desktop monitor (like that amazing 31.5-inch 4K model Asus just unveiled). You can also drop in the 11.6-inch removable panel, which acts as a mere laptop display when it’s seated in the dock.
Pull it out, however, and you’ve got a fully-functional Android tablet. It’s also powered by an Intel chip — albeit a much more humble 2GHz Clover Trail+ Atom. Visuals should look nice and sharp on the 11.6-inch 1080p screen, and a 19.5Whr battery will provide a decent amount of use between charges. It’s running Android 4.2.
It might actually be more appropriate to call this thing the Quatro, because you can still use Android when it’s docked. There’s a dedicated key that lets you flip back and forth between operating systems.
Asus hasn’t announced pricing for the Transformer Book Trio yet, but you can bet it’s going to command a premium. This is, after all, a device that can function as an Android tablet, Android notebook, Windows 8 notebook, and a Windows 8 desktop. Theoretically Asus could sell the two separately, but a Core i7 keyboard computer would probably sell a whole lot better with some kind of display to fill out its clamshell chassis.
Now read: Thinner MacBook Pro using a Haswell processor expected at WWDC
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Microsoft details Windows 8.1 key features

A blog post from Microsoft has spilled the goods on what we can expect from the first proper update of Windows 8 since the OS was first revealed last year.

Perhaps the most important point is the (sort-of) return of the Microsoft Start button. Instead of reinstating the Windows 7 Start button on the desktop though, Microsoft has opted to put what it calls a "tip" in the taskbar that'll guide you back to the tiled Start screen.

"We’ve improved the way you navigate to Start with the mouse by changing the Start “tip” to be the familiar Windows logo," says Antoine Leblond,
corporate vice president for Windows Program Management in a blog post on the Windows site. 

"The new tip appears anytime you move the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, and is always visible on the taskbar when on the desktop," he says.

So, while not a complete U-turn, Microsoft has recognised the criticism that was levelled at Windows 8 for dropping the feature - the first time it's been left out of a Windows OS since Windows 95.

But, that's just scratching the surface. Microsoft has gone into plenty of detail about it's new upgrade and most of them seem like pretty solid moves in our opinion.

Predictably, the Start screen has been a lot of attention. You can now set a personalised Start screen background as well as change the size of the tiles - either large or small - depending on your wants. Just like on Windows Phone 8, you can also rearrange the tiles to your liking.

New apps will automatically download to an apps folder, where you can choose to pin them to the Start screen or just leave them in the folder.

While we're on the subject of apps - they've been improved too. So the Photos app now has some extra editing features thrown in and the Music app has been redesigned to supposedly make it easier to navigate your music library.

Some attention has also been lavished on multitasking - following the Windows Snap maneuver that we saw shown off with the Xbox One reveal.

"Windows 8.1 brings variable, continuous size of snap views. You will have more ways to see multiple apps on the screen at the same time."

"You can resize apps to any size you want, share the screen between two apps, or have up to three apps on each screen if you have a multiple displays connected, you can have different Windows Store apps running on all the displays at the same time and the Start Screen can stay open on one monitor."

Interacting with the operating system has been improved with PC Settings now giving you access to all the settings without having to go into the Control Panel on the desktop.

Lastly, Microsoft has turned to IE and SkyDrive to improve its online offerings somewhat. Microsoft says that the new SkyDrive app will now give you access to all your files even when offline.

It also says that the latest Internet Explorer - IE11 - will come with Windows 8.1 and has been designed (like much of the OS) with touch firmly in mind. You can also now adjust the browser to always show the address bar and have as many open tabs as you want.

There's also plenty more to come, as Leblond makes clear in his blog post: "These are just some of the updates coming in Windows 8.1. We’ll be blogging more about these and other changes in the coming weeks."

"As you’ve heard us talk about before, Windows 8.1 will be available later this year as a free update for consumers to Windows 8 through the Windows Store the same way customers get app updates today."

A preview version of the Windows 8.1 upgrade will be released on June 26th at Build - Microsoft's developers conference - giving an early taster of the new-look OS.

If you've not used Windows 8 properly yet, then you can get an idea of what it's like with our in-depth review. For more information on the Windows 8.1 upgrade, check out Leblond's post on Microsoft's official blog.

Let us know your thoughts on the T3 Facebook page or on Twitter.

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