Windows App Store? I Swear I’ve Seen This Before…( Images )

With a tide rapidly shifting towards mobile and tablet devices, it should be no surprise that work is well already underway on Windows 8. An early build circulating apparently hints at a more unified OS to combat what Apple is doing with OS X/iOS and what HP is doing with Palm webOS. And some screenshots are starting to leak out. And a few appear to include, what else, an app store.

WinRumors posted the shots this morning while noting that they’re unverified. But actually, the shots in English were previously out there, what’s new are the ones in Chinese that Cnbeta found that seem to verify the design. And what a design it is — I swear this looks familiar…

Last year, we ripped Google for ripping off the design of Apple’s App Store for their Chrome Web Store. This actually might be worse. It looks almost as if Microsoft is ripping off Google ripping off Apple. Again, allegedly — the shots aren’t confirmed.

Let’s hope Microsoft isn’t actually doing such a lame copy job with their actual store. Rushing to release a store baked into the OS months after a competitor is bad enough. At least nail the design or bring something new to the table.

Stop me when these look familiar.

Windows App Store:

Mac App Store:

iOS App Store:

Chrome Web Store:

Android Market:

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HP to deliver Print services to Android

HP has announced the release of wireless printing software for Android which will enable users to wirelessly print to corporate network printers. The concept, known as “ePrint Services” is designed to make the Android platform more appealing to corporations who are looking to incorporate an employees personal smartphone into the IT structure. Employees will be able to print emails, documents and even presentations to printers that employ HPs Internet printing service. The new app competes directly with iOS AirPrint and Google’s Cloud Print technologies, which HP says aren’t secure enough for corporate IT networks.

“There’s a huge amount of security that’s required when you’re dealing with sensitive documents and mobile printing,” said Mark Quiroz, who heads H-P’s marketing for corporate printing products.

 
Once downloaded, employees will open the app and choose what to print. Select the printer. And here’s where it gets clunky … users will receive a code which then must be manually entered into the printer to print from. But HP insists that the extra security ensures that documents are only printed where they’re supposed to go.

As more and more companies allow employees to use their personal smartphones for business use, the need for secure, wireless printing becomes ever more important. According to Fortune Magazine, 88% of Fortune 100 companies are incorporating a new mobile print standard for the iPhone. And HPs ePrint for BlackBerry has been downloaded more than 200,000 times since it was launched last year. With Android handsets surpassing both iOS and RIM, it was time for HP to release it’s Android version. HP estimates that by summer, ePrint software will support 90% of smartphones in the US. Look for it to be released May 1st.

•  [via Total Telecom]
  

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