Windows 8 Consumer Preview hits 1 million downloads in one day

Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview software was downloaded 1 million times in the first 24 hours. (Microsoft Corp. / Twitter Inc. / March 1, 2012)

Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview, in its first 24 hours after being released, was downloaded 1 million times.

Not too bad for an operating system still in beta, not finished and not ready for a consumer retail shelf. But then again, the software was made available as a free download.

The Windows 8 development team announced the massive number on Twitter on Thursday in a tweet that said, simply, “One day later … one million downloads of the consumer preview.”

The Consumer Preview release, like the Developer Preview released in September, is a step toward bringing Windows 8 and its touch-compatible user interface to tablets, laptops and desktops later this year.

Microsoft is releasing the software partly to get developers to start using the new operating system and build apps that work on touch-centric devices, as well as with the traditional keyboard, mouse and trackpad.

But while developers are no doubt a focal point for Microsoft, anyone can download the new software for free — app builder or not.

Samsung Galaxy S III To Launch In April?

While not launching the next Samsung flagship at MWC in Barcelona was probably the right choice for Samsung, that doesn’t change the fact that we’re itching with anticipation over when the Galaxy S III will show its pretty little edge-to-edge face.

We know most of the specs (well, rumored ones at least), which means we know we’ll see a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a quad-core Samsung Exynos CPU running at 1.5GHz, and a little 4G LTE icon. What we don’t know, however, is when we’ll see any of this.

But reports are now leaking out of Korea, citing Samsung’s global marketing and advertising agency Cheil Worldwide, claiming that the phone we hate to wait for should show up in April. Things don’t get any more specific than that unfortunately, but this still gives us plenty to work with.

For one thing, we already knew that launch date rumors were circling around the March/April time frame. Secondly, Samsung itself confirmed that the phone would arrive “before Summer,” which leads us to believe that narrowing the launch period down to April seems correct.

We’ve also heard that the S III will launch simultaneously in over 50 major markets, rather than seeing an incremental roll-out like the S II. This means that whatever launch date is given will likely apply to us in the States, instead of Samsung’s home team getting early access.

Source: techcrunch