Review: 64-bit Adobe Preview Handler shows PDF thumbnails in Windows/File Explorer

When I upgraded to Windows 8 64-bit a few months back, a strange thing happened. The thumbnails for all of my PDF files disappeared. Normally, when I view an Explorer folder, I have the PDF files on "view large icons" (as it then gives me a preview of what the first page of the file looks like).  But Windows 8 wiped all of that. I couldn't even get the standard Adobe PDF logo. So I did my usual and went Googling for answers and ended up with a free program called 64-bit Adobe Preview Handler.

The app itself is just a simple box which can be closed, once you click the "apply fix" button.

This small app (which weighs in at a measly 1MB) makes a small Windows registry fix that brings your PDF thumbnails back. The issue of disappearing thumbnails doesn't seem to be confined to just Windows 8 though. Anyone with either Vista or Windows 7 64-bit may also experience this problem, and 64-bit Adobe Preview Handler is here to save the day.

Simply do the usual download and install and when you start it up, you will see a small window. There is pretty much nothing to configure–no options or anything. Click "apply fix" and then restart Windows Explorer.  If it still doesn't work, you may also have to clear your thumbnail cache, but don't worry, this is very easy to do. Simply run Disk Cleanup, select the C drive, put a tick in the Thumbnails checkbox, and then click OK. The system will do the rest.

Check back again on Windows Explorer, and you should see your PDF thumbnails appear again.

You have to bear in mind that this is not an official fix by Adobe, and according to the developer of this fix, Adobe doesn't seem to be in much of a rush to make an official fix.  So until they can be bothered (which might well be never), this unofficial fix by Leo Davidson is more than sufficient.  And if you like the fix, then support the developer by sending him a PayPal donation.  This will encourage him to continue the unofficial work that he is doing on Adobe's behalf.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Expatriate Scotsman now living in Wurzburg, Germany, freelance writer, frustrated future bestselling author, obsessed bibliophile. Other interests include trying to understand The Architect in the Matrix movies, decrypting codes and ciphers, and trying to persuade my landlord and my wife to let me have a Highland Cow for a pet.
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IFA Berlin 2012 Preview: 6 Things to Expect

This week, many of the world’s leading tech companies will gather in Germany to show off their latest products at IFA Berlin, Europe’s answer to the Consumer Electronics Show. Since 1924, the trade show has been a popular place for the world’s innovators to unveil and demonstrate their latest wares. This year should be no different as we expect to see a number of trends emerge:

Windows 8 Hybrids: Samsung recently teased a Windows 8 tablet with detachable keyboard on its Facebook page, which many think will be its previously-announced Series 5 Hybrid. Perhaps ASUS will grant visitors a closer look at the Windows 8 hybrids it introduced at Computex, including the unique ASUS Taichi, which has a second screen on the back of its lid.

MORE: Top Windows 8 Tablet-Laptop Hybrids 

Samsung Keeps Fighting: If you thought Samsung was going to take its ball and go home in the smartphone wars after its defeat in court, you thought wrong.  The company is apparently readying a larger sequel to its already-supersized Galaxy Note in the Galaxy Note 2. What should you expect? According to leaked specs obtained by Slashgear, a ginormous 5.5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a 1.4-GHz quad core Exynos processor, and possibly even Ice Cream Sandwich at launch. The claim to fame, though, will remain a built-in pen for taking notes and using all sorts of stylus-optimized apps.

MORE: Samsung to Release 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II in October

Android-Connected Cameras: GottaBeMobile reports that Samsung will unveil a “Galaxy Camera” at IFA, making it the second manufacturer after Nikon to show off an Android-powered point-and-shoot. Could others be on board, too? And will a camera that runs apps really save the point and shoot?

MORE: Nikon Announces Android-Powered S800c Coolpix

Windows 8 Notebooks (with Touch): With the likes of Samsung, ASUS, Acer, Lenovo and Dell all exhibiting and the Windows 8's release date just weeks away, we expect to see final or near-final versions of these vendors’ Windows 8 notebooks. We’ll see how many  have touchpads that actually support the new Windows 8 gestures, and how many add touchscreens as a bonus. 

MORE: Windows 8 Full Review

Sony Mobile Makes a Tablet Splash? Sony Mobile has one of the first press conferences on our schedule, and we expect the company to make a splash. It’s been almost exactly one year since we reviewed the Sony Tablet S, so perhaps we’ll see a new version of the slate at IFA. Back in July The Vergereported that the company was readying an Xperia tablet with a Surface-style keyboard.  

MORE: Top 10 iPad Alternatives

Jelly Bean Goes Mainstream: It has now been two months since Google introduced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but we haven’t seen any non-Google devices come preloaded with the new OS.  With Samsung, Lenovo, Sony and Acer all likely to show new tablets or phones, we hope to see at least a couple of devices running Jelly Bean.

MORE: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Review

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SpoonFed Mobile: Nokia Lumia 900 Verdict, Best iPhone Alarm Clocks, Evo 4G LTE Preview

In this week’s episode of SpoonFed Mobile, LAPTOP Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer gives you his verdict on the Nokia Lumia 900. Is it finally time for a Windows Phone? Plus, he recommends the best iPhone and iPad alarm clocks, and goes hands-on with the new HTC EVO 4G LTE from Sprint, the first-ever phone to feature HD Voice calls. Enjoy!

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Preview App: Stepwells Is a Live Scrolling Pinterest of Web Services

 At least one other web app we saw at the SXSW Interactive Startup Spotlight resembled Pinterest, but given how hot the photo-sharing startup is, it came as no surprise to see a second imitator. Stepwells doesn’t mimic the use of Pinterest exactly, but there are definitely some similarities that can be drawn in terms of aesthetics, particularly with Stepwells’ clean rectangular boxes with ample white space.

But what exactly does the web app do? Basically, it creates a live collage of the web services you choose to add to a dashboard within your browser. It’s handy because it lets you bypass URLs, credentials, navigation and search after you’ve bookmarked these sites. Want to stay updated with a particular topic—for instance, “South by Southwest”? You can post boxes that extract data about SXSW across different sites—so the app crawls and slurps up related Pinterest pins, Tumblr posts, tweets, Instagram pictures, etc. and deposits them onto your dashboard environment, which scrolls laterally from screen to screen. Each box can also refresh at regular intervals that you determine. You bookmark the site or topic on Stepwells using a custom browser extension.

Another potential use for the app: Add all your frequently visited sites to the dashboard so you no longer have to open multiple tabs when you get to your desk in the morning. (Or rather, when you get back home—since surely you only peruse work-related sites at the office.) The web app eventually plans to migrate to your phone and tablet, so you can seamlessly jump into your dashboard even after you leave your computer station. Each time you visit Stepwells, you also get notifications for updates within your separate bookmarked items.

Stepwells is in closed beta right now, and quite far from finished. We tried the app ourselves through a special account and at certain points, the bookmark function froze and we couldn’t add the sites of our choosing. But since the service is planning to launch by mid of next year, there’s still plenty of time for the startup to iron out the kinks. If you’re curious about this new service, you can take a peek at the read-only dashboard the startup demoed at SXSWi here.

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Tested: Windows 7 Beats Windows 8 Preview in Battery Life, File Copy, More

Unfortunately, the Windows 8  file transfer speeds on our test systems weren’t as good as the boot times. When we performed the LAPTOP file transfer test, which involves copying 4.97GB of mixed media files, on the Dell Inspiron 15 M5030, the results were about on-par in both operating systems, with Windows 7 producing a rate of 24 MBps to Windows 8's slight-slower 23 MBps.

The difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 transfer speeds was truly significant on the Samsung Series 7 and ASUS Zenbook UX31. Where, on Windows 7, the tablet and notebook copied the files at rates of 68 and 98 MBps respectively, on Windows 8, the transfer rates dropped to just 27 MBps on the Samsung Series 7 and 34 MBps on the Zenbook.

Synthetic test results were basically flat. On PCMark07, a benchmark that measures overall performance, the Dell Inspiron 15 M5030 and ASUS Zenbook UX31 saw very marginal increases in score, with the M5030 jumping from a low 1,278 to a slightly better 1,442 and the UX31 increasing its scored from 3,606 to 3,964. However, a difference of 100 points or 200 points on PCMark07 can occur between one run of the software and another so these increases were well within the margin of error. The Samsung Series 7 Slate could not run PCMark07.

When we ran the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Test — which matches 20,000 names to addresses — the Samsung Series 7 took 14 minutes and 8 seconds to complete the test in Windows 8, but  just 12 minutes and 45 seconds in Windows 7. On the same test, the ASUS Zenbook UX31 also saw a decrease in performance as it went from 5 minutes and 50 seconds in Windows 7 to 8 minutes and 55 seconds in Windows 8. Unfortunately, we could not perform the OpenOffice Spreadsheet test on the Dell Inspiron 15 M5030.

Running the same applications, graphics performance on our test systems was about the same on both OSes. On 3DMark06, the Inspiron 15 M5030 scored 1,689 in Windows 8, nearly the same as the  1,725 it achieved using Windows 7. The M5030 also achieved comparable frame rates when playing games in Windows 8. When we ran “World of Warcraft” on Good settings, the M5030 averaged 17 frames per second, on par with the game’s performance on Windows 7.

Graphics performance on the Samsung Series 7 was also fairly similar on both with OSes. On 3DMark06, the tablet notched a Windows 8 score of 1,650 nearly identical to the 1,642 scored on Windows 7. In “World of Warcraft,” the Samsung Series 7 achieved an unplayable 11 fps using Windows 8, compared to a slightly better (but also unplayable) 13 fps on Windows 7.

The ASUS Zenbook, by contrast, achieved slightly better graphics performance using Windows 8 than it had with Windows 7. Using Windows 8, the notebook notched a score of 4,360 on 3DMark06, up noticeably from 3,761 on Windows 7. Playing “World of Warcraft” with Good settings, the Zenbook UX31 turned in a frame rate of 28 fps that was imperceptibly better than the 26 fps it achieved with Windows 7. After turning the settings up to Ultra, “World of Warcraft” ran at just 13 fps, on par with its frame rate on Windows 7.

Though it’s supposed to be more power efficient, in our tests, Windows 8 provided noticeably less endurance  than its predecessor on the Dell Inspiron 15 M5030, Samsung Series 7 Slate PC and ASUS Zenbook UX31. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous surfing on the Web using Wi-Fi and Firefox), the Inspiron 15 lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes on Windows 7, but only 2 hours and 45 minutes on Windows 8.

The Zenbook UX31 experienced an hour decrease in battery life, dropping from 5 hours and 58 minutes on Windows 7 to 4 hours and 55 minutes on Windows 8. The decrease in battery life was most dramatic on the Samsung Series 7, which lasted a reasonable 5 hours and 49 minutes while using Windows 7, but just 3 hours and 36 minutes on Windows 8.

It’s way too early to say that Windows 8 will offer lower battery life or slower file copies when it launches sometime later this year. It’s also too soon to say spreadsheet performance will suffer under Windows 8. Most likely the differences we saw were due to driver or hardware support issues that should improve over time. 

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview: Initial Impressions

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is only just becoming available to the public, but we’ve had the opportunity to use it for a few days on a Samsung slate nearly identical to the one we sampled at the BUILD conference for developers last year. While the device we’re using is nearly the same, the operating system itself has undergone a lot of refinement since our initial report last September.

We can’t wait to install the Consumer Preview on a wide variety of current PCs and tell you all about how well it does or does not work, as well as provide tips and tricks for those of you installing it for yourselves. We know you don’t want to wait, so we offer our initial impressions of the release based on several days with a Microsoft-provided, Samsung-built slate running the same release the public will download. There’s only one major difference: the Store is not yet functional, so these impressions are based only on the apps built into the Windows 8 Consumer Preview itself.

Jason Cross says:
This is definitely not the flaky, feature-light version of Windows 8 released for developers last year. It’s dramatically smoother and more responsive. Apps snap open, and flipping between them is immediate. The People and Photos hubs are there, showcasing Windows 8’s integration with multiple services like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Flickr. Using these new apps and hubs with a touchscreen is a joy. They could all use a little polish and a few more features, though. It needs to be easier to save photos locally from Facebook or Flickr in the Photos hub, for instance. Everything is big, bright, smooth, and beautiful. I confined myself to a bluetooth keyboard and mouse for awhile, and the experience is definitely diminished.

The Windows 8 Photos hub integrates pictures from several online sources.That’s not to say the keyboard and mouse experience is bad, mind you. I’m actually quite delighted at how well the whole Metro-style interface works with them. Microsoft has made some very welcome tweaks to accommodate the hundreds of millions of users with no touchscreen. It’s just so...new. I spent a good hour just discovering how to do things I’ve known how to do in Windows for over a decade. It’s usually a good feeling, because when I figure out how Windows 8 does something differently (like display all installed programs), I’m usually impressed by its speed and elegance. Let me say that again: I’m impressed by the speed and elegance of a Microsoft interface. Really!

[Related: Windows 8 Consumer Preview: A Visual Tour]

Unfortunately, I think it’s going to get rough welcome. People often don’t like change at first. Just look at the way every little tweak to the Facebook interface is received. It takes a little time, and a little trial and error, to discover where everything is, how it works, and how to get around. Then it takes a little more poking around to get really fast at it. We all know how the Internet works: there are people who will use something for two minutes (or not at all) and spend the rest of the day complaining about it on forums, comments, message boards, and social networks.
I can sympathize. It’s unsettling to see such basic tenets of the Windows user experience shifted so dramatically. Windows 8 wants me to do a lot of things through the Metro interface that I used to do on a desktop interface, and there was some natural resistance to that at first. I only had to look for something in the wrong place once to become frustrated, and it took a little time to unlearn all I had learned since Windows 95.

The Messaging App is one of the least useful - until more services are added.The good news is: there’s a payoff for sticking with it. It doesn’t take long, and before you know it you’re using new shortcuts and flying around the OS like an old pro. I can’t wait for the Store to launch, because much to my surprise, I find myself really valuing the Metro-style applications and they way they operate, even when using a keyboard and mouse. I want Metro apps for Spotify and Evernote, a great Twitter client and a native Facebook app. I want a Metro-style front end for Steam. I have some concerns about how well everything scales to a large monitor, but more and more, as I spent time with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, I just wanted the OS to be done and on the market already. So I suppose that’s “mission accomplished” for the folks in Redmond.

Nate Ralph says:

Gestures and UI elements are the same, whether you're using a touchscreen, or your keyboard and mouse.Touch has always been an interesting novelty, but I kept the slate running the Consumer Preview docked, relying on the keyboard and mouse to get around. And every so often, I found myself trying to nudge the cursor along with the spacebar, wondering where my trackpad had gone. Eventually I’d give up and use a finger to tap on the particular app I’d been trying to get to, all the while oblivious to the mouse idling beside my hands.

That’s the right sort of disorienting. Tablets imply limitations: consider Android and iOS, operating systems explicitly designed to meld well with your hands. Grids of fixed, finger-friendly icons are all but mandatory, to ensure the user experience is a fluid one.

Windows 8 abandons any such notions; the device melts away, and you’re left with a canvas that responds to your interactions. Gestures make sense, whatever your input preference: I slid effortlessly between dragging my finger across the screen, clicking around with the mouse, and tapping at the keyboard, depending on whatever made sense at the moment. This versatility is going to be key for users trying to make sense of the bold new interface.

My handwriting is generally unrecognizable; Windows converts it into a font, and treats it as regular text.And then I remembered the stylus. Windows has offered phenomenal, native handwriting recognition since the halcyon days of XP – but good luck finding an application or device to take advantage of it. Hopefully, the push for Windows 8 tablets is going to alleviate that issue. But this is yet another facet of that uncompromising design that's driving everything about the Windows 8 experience: I typed on a keyboard when the slate was at my desk, but took the stylus to meetings and wrote notes by hand.

Bizarre, that in light of all of the new features I reach for something as archaic as a stylus. But I’ve waited years for this – an operating system that works with me. The device is largely irrelevant – I happen to like taking notes with a pen, but use a combination of the touchscreen and a keyboard. Windows 8 leaves every option on the table, and that's fantastic.

I’m still a little concerned about how this will translate onto larger screens – especially once the apps start to pile on. But things are shaping up nicely-- consider me smitten.

It looks like Windows 8 is certainly going to take some getting used to. But underneath that daunting new interface are a wealth of smart decisions that go a long way towards dragging the behemoth that is Windows into the future. Perhaps most promising is the stuff we haven't looked at yet: the apps, and the way multiple Windows 8 PCs and tablets sync together. What we see here has us excited, but it doesn't have the level of polish that makes us think it's just about ready to go. Judging by the quality here, it looks likely to release this fall, though Microsoft has made no official announcement.

If you want to see for yourself, download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Follow Jason Cross and Nate Ralph on Twitter.

For more blogs, stories, photos, and video about Microsoft Windows 8, check out PCWorld's complete Windows 8 coverage.

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Mobile World Congress 2012 Preview: Quad-Core Phones, Intel Medfield Devices, More

During the week of February 27th, the technology industry will gather in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, phone and tablet makers’ annual answer to CES. In the halls of Fira Palace, leading handset makers including Nokia, Sony, Samsung,  HTC, and LG will be showcasing their latest wares, some of which won’t appear in North America for several months. At last year’s show, we had the opportunity to preview the Samsung Galaxy S II, which didn’t appear on our shores until the fall, and the HTC Flyer, which didn’t arrive until summer.

Here are some of the trends we expect to see at this year’s Mobile World Congress:

Quad-Core Tegra 3 Phones: We were disappointed not to see any Tegra 3-powered handsets at CES, but we’d be shocked if nobody unveils one at Mobile World Congress. We’ve already heard that LG could be unveiling a quad-core phone called the LG X3 at its Feburary 26th press event and that HTC may announce the rumored One X phone that day too.More Tegra 3 Tablets: At the moment, ASUS’s Eee Pad Transformer Prime is the only tablet powered by Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 CPU. We expect at least one other tablet-maker to show off a quad-core slate at the show. ASUS is rumored to release a lower-end version of the Transformer called the Transformer Pad TF300T, that has Tegra 3 with a 1280 x 752 resolution screen. Intel Medfield Comes to the U.S.: Intel made a splash at CES when it showed off both the Lenovo K800, the first phone powered by Intel’s Medfield platform, and the Lenovo IdeaTab K2110, an Android tablet with Medfield. Neither of these devices is expected to come to the U.S. and Lenovo doesn’t even sell phones here. However, we expect to see some larger handset makers start demoing Medfield devices at the show. Though Motorola told us it has no major announcements at the show, Slashgear recently reported that the company could be unveiling a Medfield-powered Droid in Barcelona.Wireless Display Demos:  At CES, Texas Instruments showed off its OMAP 4 processor’s ability to stream videos and games wirelessly to a second display while Intel announced that its Medfield platform would support the same Wireless Display (WiDi) standard we’ve seen on Core i5 and higher notebooks for a couple of years now. We expect to see actual mobile devices, not just white box units, that stream wirelessly on a number of platforms. Perhaps, we’ll even see Nvidia or Qualcomm show off this ability.HTC Sense 4.0: HTC’s Sense UI is due for an upgrade and many observers expect Sense Version 4.0 to make an appearance at Mobile World Congress. Slashgear reports that the new Sense will have a homescreen that functions in landscape mode, an improved browser with reader and page saving modes, and built-in Dropbox support.   Windows 8 Tablets: With the consumer preview of Windows 8 due out on the third day of the show, we expect to see a slew of Windows 8 slates appear on the show floor either right after the event or right before. Most of these slates will probably be running Windows 8 for ARM so we’ll get a closer look at that version of the upcoming OS.Augmented Reality Everywhere: Augmented reality apps were a big theme at CES and an even bigger one at this year’s Toy Fair. We’ll undoubtedly see some interested AR software and appcessories, particularly for Android. Even the Mobile World Congress show itself is getting into the act, providing an augmented reality app overlays icons on top of buildings and exhibits throughout the convention center.Higher-than-HD Screens: With Apple’s iPad 3 expected to launch with a 2048 x 1536 screen, the resolution race is on. At CES, we saw a couple of tablets — the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF700T and an unnamed Acer slate  with 1920 x 1200 displays. Expect to see more 1920 x 1200 or higher Android tablets unveiled at Mobile World Congress, along with a host of handsets sporting 1280 x 720 resolutions.Pen Proliferation: At last year’s Mobile World Congress, we saw the first Android tablet with an active stylus in the HTC Flyer. Since then, Samsung has brought pen support to phones with the Galaxy Note. Expect at least one other pen-based device from a major manufacturer to bow at this year’s show, perhaps the rumored Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet from Samsung.Even if we’re wrong about even half of these predictions, Mobile World Congress 2012 promises to be one of the most exciting mobile trade shows yet. Stay tuned for our full coverage of the show.

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Mac OS X Mountain Lion Preview: Much More iPad Inside

With Mac OS X Lion, iCloud was integrated but largely invisible. You could do things like sync iWork documents and view any photos taken with an iOS device in iPhoto ’11. But now iCloud is more visible and deeply woven into the Mountain Lion. And with more than 100 million iCloud accounts out there, this service has a lot of potential to tempt iPhone and iPad owners into picking up a Mac.

For example, when you use Mountain Lion for the first time, you can automatically set up multiple apps just by logging in with your Apple ID. These apps include Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Mac App Store, Documents & Data and Bookmarks.

Note that iCloud doesn’t automatically set up accounts you’ve already established on iOS devices, such as Exchange or Gmail. You’ll need to manually add them under Mail, Contacts & Calendars in System Preferences.

To make documents easier to manage and sync between devices, Mountain Lion includes a new feature called Documents in the Cloud. When you launch an app like Pages, you’ll see a Document Library view that lets you toggle between what’s stored in iCloud and what’s on your Mac. When you select a document, you’ll see that the Share button at the bottom of the box lights up, making it easy to send off that file via email, Messages or AirDrop.

In addition, you can instantly create folders by dragging and dropping one file on top of another, just like creating app folders on iOS. It was a cinch to make and name a folder using the TextEdit app on our 13-inch MacBook Air.

Documents in the Cloud will be coming to iWork apps shortly. When you make a change on a presentation using your Mac, for example, it will automatically show up on your iPad seconds later.

iCloud isn’t limited to Apple’s own apps, either. The developer API enables developers to create document apps for OS X and iOS that can talk with each other.

However, Apple noted that the application would need to be available in the Mac App Store. We’re not sure we’d be willing to give up Dropbox for Documents in the Cloud because of its cross-platform capabilities, but if you’re comfortable with an all-Apple setup it should do the trick.

Bye, bye, iChat. Messages has now taken over in MacOS X Mountain Lion, combining iMessage with instant messaging (AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber). Messages will be available for Lion as a separate beta download starting Feb.16.

The coolest part of Messages is that you can send a message to anyone who owns an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5. I found it convenient to send off a quick message to my wife’s iPhone from my MacBook while on the bus without having to pull out my own iPhone. When she replied, the message automatically showed up both on my laptop and iPhone (it buzzed in my pocket).

Another neat feature is that you can drag and drop photos and videos right into the Messages window and send it off as a multimedia message. Just keep in mind that you can’t send messages to people who don’t use iMessage. That means your Android-toting friends are off-limits.

Although Facetime continues to be a separate app in Mountain Lion, Messages integrates with the service. That means you can jump on a video call just by pressing the video camera icon in the top right corner of the screen.

The Messages app present your latest conversation in the right window and other conversations in the left pane, making it easy to pick up a chat where you left off.

One of the most asked-for features in iOS has landed on Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Notification Center delivers banner-style alerts for incoming messages, calendar entries, reminders, Mac App Store updates, Twitter updates and even Game Center invitations to games. The banners disappear after five seconds, but at any time you can two-finger swipe left from the right side of your touchpad to see all of you notifications in one place. You can also launch this view by clicking the little circle in the top right corner of the screen, which turns blue when you have new alerts.

Although you can’t dismiss individual notifications within the Center, you can click the X next to the name of an app (like calendar) to clear all notifications from that app. Clicking on a notification will open the application. We’re glad that Notification Center works on the Launch Pad screen and in any full-screen app but wish it also opened in the Mission Control view.

So you don’t get overloaded with alerts, OS X Mountain Lion lets you choose which apps deliver notifications and whether they’re presented as banners or slightly larger alerts. But the best way to minimize noise on your desktop is to choose some email VIPs. This new feature allows you to select VIPs in the Mail app just by clicking the star next to a person’s name within a message. From there you’ll have the option to have only email notifications show up from the people you deem most important.

We’re glad to hear that Apple is letting developers leverage its Notifications API, because otherwise our alerts from Tweetdeck and other third-party apps would get downright dizzying. We hope to see a lot of compatible programs at launch.

The new Reminders and Notes apps ported from the iPad for OS X Mountain almost feel like oversize widgets. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because we suspect that users will appreciate the simplicity of these apps. Their true utility comes in the seamless synchronization between iOS devices and the Mac. 

Just as with the iPad version, Reminders lets you create to-do lists and assign due dates as well as the priority level. Just hover over the “i” icon on the right side of the screen to see your options. If you have multiple to-do’s, the search field at the top left part of the screen will come in handy.

Although iCloud is supposed to push these reminders to your iPhone and iPad, the syncing was sporadic in our early testing. On a few occasions when we added a Reminder on our iPhone 4S or iPad 2 it automatically showed up on our MacBook Air, but other times they simply wouldn’t sync. (Closing the app on our iOS device sometimes helped.)

We had better luck with the Notes app, with most of our notes syncing within a minute. We expect sync times to improve as Mountain Lion gets closer to launch.

Plus, Notes on OS X Mountain Lion is more robust than the iPad version. For example, you’re supposed to be able to drag a photo or attachment to your note, as well as format notes with fonts and bulleted items (good for recipes). At a later date Notes will also support Web links, perhaps giving users fewer reasons to use a service like Evernote. Dragging photos into our Notes didn’t work when we tried it, but we assume it’s a bug Apple needs to fix.

As with the iPad version, you can share notes via email, but you can also add them to outgoing messages by using the built-in share button. If you want to treat that note like a Sticky, just double click it so that it stays on your desktop.

Macs are getting more social with Mountain Lion’s Share Sheets. This feature makes it easy to share items directly from the app you’re using, whether it’s a website in Safari, Notes, iPhoto or Preview. Once you press the Share button, you’ll see an interface that lets you enter a message to the recipient.

The method of sharing varies based on the application, but Email, Message and Twitter are available in most cases. Flickr and Vimeo are also on board. Here’s a quick breakdown of the available services for specific apps:

Safari: Email, Message, TwitterPreview: Email, Message, Twitter, AirDrop, FlickrPhoto Booth: Email, Message, Twitter, AirDrop, FlickrNotes: Email, MessageQuickTime: Email, Message, and AirDrop, in addition to existing QuickTime video-sharing servicesQuick Look: Email, Message, AirDrop, Twitter, Vimeo, FlickrDocument Library: Email, Message, AirDropiPhoto: Message and Twitter, in addition to existing iPhoto photo-sharing services. 

With Twitter you’ll see a thumbnail image of the page you’re sharing along with a Tweet box for adding your message. Twitter functionality in Mountain Lion goes even deeper. You should see Twitter profile pictures in the contacts app, and soon you’ll be able to tweet links to apps in the Mac App Store and receive Twitter notifications.

Unfortunately, Share Sheets doesn’t work with Facebook, which is a pretty big omission in our book. The lack of Facebook integration isn’t a surprise given that it’s not available in iOS, either. However, because Mountain Lion invites more sharing, right now it feels like a missed opportunity.

The more popular Macs become, the larger a target they could become for malware, and Apple hopes to head off that threat with Gatekeeper. This new feature in Mountain Lion essentially creates a whitelist of apps based on whether they’re available in the App Store or–if you’re making your app available on the web–signed with a Developer ID. (Apple says it’s a simple process to obtain an ID, which costs $99 per year.)

Mountain Lion ships with three options under Security & Privacy that users can choose for dealing with downloaded applications. The default mode in the developer preview is “Anywhere” because there aren’t any applications yet that have been digitally signed with a Mac Developer ID. But when Mountain Lion launches for consumers this summer the default selection will change to “Mac App Store and identified developers.” Those looking for maximum security can select “Mac App Store” for downloading apps only from Apple’s storefront. At this level you’ll benefit from Apple’s own review process as well as the fact that Mac App Store apps have user reviews.

When we attempted to open an unidentified app after installing it from the Web with the Mac App Store and identified developers setting turned on, a message popped up saying that the program  “is not from an identified developer. You should move it to the Trash.” Apple will be changing the language of this dialog. If you choose to you can manually override Gatekeeper by pressing Ctrl and clicking on the name of the app within Finder.

Overall, we like that Apple is giving users more choice when it comes to deciding how stringent they want their systems to be in downloading software. It will be up to developers to ensure that they get a Developer ID so that their apps aren’t mistakenly labeled as malware.

Imagine you’re just surfing the Web and all of a sudden you get an invite from a buddy who wants to challenge you in a game from his iPad. Game Center for OS X Lion makes this scenario possible. Just as with the iOS version, this gaming social network helps you discover new diversions and friends to enjoy them with, as well as see how you stack up against the competition.

Since Game Center already has a huge user base of 100 million registered users and counting and because Games is the most popular category in the Mac App Store, we see a lot of potential for Mountain Lion to help make the Mac chip away at Windows’ lead in PC gaming.

Game Center wasn’t available on our preview build of OS X Mountain Lion, but we did have a chance to see it in action and it seems to work well.

Apple is definitely playing catch-up when it comes to streaming content from your laptop to a TV. Intel has been doing this with its WiDi technology for a couple of years. However, AirPlay is easier to use and promises smoother performance. Provided you have an Apple TV, you can stream whatever is on your desktop — a presentation, a photo gallery, an iMovie or even a game — directly to your big screen. It works just like the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S.

The developer build of Mountain Lion we tested didn’t have AirPlay, but Apple did give us a demo of the feature working on another MacBook Air. Once you’re connected to the same network as your Apple TV, your Mac should just recognize it and present a menu option toward the top of the screen to connect.

During our hands-on preview, we streamed a racing game from across the room with little to no lag. However, video output is limited to only 720p, compared with1080p for WiDi and competing technologies such as the WHDI found on laptops like the Alienware M17x and M18x.

Nevertheless, should Apple roll out a full-fledged iTV as expected, AirPlay Mirroring on Lion could be one more reason to choose a Mac over a Windows PC.

Given that Mac sales continue to grow while the rest of the PC industry is totally flat, it’s easy to understand why Apple is taking a more conservative approach with Mac OS X Mountain Lion than Microsoft’s bolder Windows 8. The software is less of a “major release” but more of an update that builds on the success of the original Lion by adding more iPad features to the mix. The raised profile of iCloud in Mountain Lion serves as a bridge between tablet and desktop computing. It’s a smart approach, and it works.

While we encountered a few app freezes and would like to see Reminders and Notes syncing between Macs and iOS devices speed up, we can say that OS X 10.8  feels more mature and feature-complete. We especially like Notification Center for seeing your alerts at a glance. The biggest drawback right now is the lack of Facebook integration for sharing. And given the seemingly frosty relationship between Apple and the leading social network, there’s no guarantee that this feature will become available.

The one thing Apple needs to be wary of moving forward is tacking so much of the iPad onto the Mac that users feel as though they’re using two different operating systems. Right now, though, the balance feels just about right.

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Slated for February 29

We just got our invitation to Microsoft’s debutante ball in Spain for Windows 8 beta– dubbed Windows 8 Consumer Preview–which will take place on February 29th during Mobile World Congress and will hopefully culminate in the release of a public beta of Windows 8. Though the OS will still need some primping and preening before it’s official release later this year, it’ll give the general public a chance to dance with the new Metro user interface, the same interface overlay that’s currently on Windows Phone. 

Microsoft has stated that their goal with Windows 8 is to optimize the tablet experience while still providing the power and versatility needed for desktop users. Users will be able to purchase apps from the Windows Store for simplified software installation across a variety of devices. We got a hands-on look at the developer preview of Windows 8 and came away impressed not only by the operating system’s touch capabilities, but also by how well it handled on a traditional laptop. 

LAPTOP will be at Windows 8 Consumer Preview’s debut at Mobile World Congress in Spain later this month, so stay tuned.

From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here