In under 4hrs from posting this, at 4am PDT, we’ll all be able to start upgrading to Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 updates are active in the Windows Store. That’s assuming you’re running Windows 8 of course!

Update: Windows 8.1 update download is 2.8GB. Servers seem to be coping though.

Windows 8.1 apps are already in the store waiting for upgraded users and one of those is the official Facebook app. Ta Da!

There’s lots more coming including IE11, new imaging and video apps and a new suite of built-in app upgrades. You’ll probably see a lot of new and upgraded third party apps too and that’s one of the yardsticks that people will be using to gage Windows Store progress. It’s important, no, critical that ISVs get a positive feel over the next few weeks and 8.1 rolls out and the new wave of modern form-factors roll out. That includes the ASUS Transformer T100 which some have already got in their hands today.

See the Windows 8.1 preview on the Acer W510.

Latest information is that Microsoft will flip the switch at 4am local time. That’s 1300 in central Europe, 1200 in the UK and 7am in New York.

4am in Silicon Valley in your timezone.

You should get the update notification through Windows Store when it’s available but be aware that availability could be tight, some locations may get it earlier than others, there may be firmware updates needed on some PCs and that the update process itself is going to take a long time. Installing the Beta on a Clovetrail tablet could take an hour or more. On an Ultrabook with a quick Internet connection you’ll probably be done in 20 minutes.

I’m ready and waiting to update to Win 8.1 with an Acer W510, Samsung ATIV 500T and an Intel developer Ultrabook…

Some of you are going to receive a Windows 8.1 update tomorrow. If you’ve got a laptop without a touchscreen you might be in the ‘so what’ camp but if you’ve got a touch tablet you’ll have happy fingers. If you’ve got Connected Standby and 3G, there’s a little extra treat in there for you. Microsoft have been highlighting Windows 8.1 features in a blog series recently and today we get to hear about Movie Moments, a new Movie editing app alone with big updates to Fresh Paint, Photo and Camera apps.

For a quick overview of windows 8.1 features, see our previous Win 8.1 preview with the Acer Iconia W510 and the Win 8.1 announcement post that has some details on the keyboard.

The new features are going to fit well with Baytrail-based Windows 8.1 products because they mobile, finger and creativity-focused. Some of the on-chip features are going to accelerate these functions while keeping battery consumption low.

Take the newly announced Movie Moments app which I’ll be testing on the W510 as soon as I can. (Here’ s a previous single-device video take-edit-upload process done with other Windows 8 software.) If Microsoft allow H.264 output at configurable bitrates, configurable templates and support for the Intel Media SDK for hardware acceleration, I’m in! It could be good enough for my YouTube videos.

Microsoft’s blog post talks about new features in the camera app. Take a video and capture an image at the same time (hopefully at full resolution,) use Photosynth technology to create Panoramas and use a photo loop to capture multiple frames over a 2-second time period. The only problem here is that the camera hardware needs to be improved.

Improvements have also gone into the photo editing feature. I tested this in the 8.1 preview and it was good enough for social-sharing uses.

Finally, Fresh Paint gets a big update. Those with a pressure-sensitive digitizer pen will get more out of it than most!

Don’t forget that Windows 8.1 isn’t just about a Start button. It isn’t just about supporting small-screen devices either as there are improvements that have gone into the self-supporting Windows 8 sub-system that is Connected Standby. You can run more apps in the background and, for the first time, you’ll be able to use 3G/4G modules when in Connected Standby / InstantGo. Running Skype in this mode will be interesting.

Here’s a re-cap of the preview work done with the Acer W510 and Windows 8.1

Hat tip: The Digital Lifestyle

Intel says that there are 50 Baytrail design wins under development and believes that 10 Baytrail systems will be on the shelf by Black Friday, 29th November 2013, but that most of those will be Android tablets.

Third-Quarter results were announced by Intel yesterday and while we won’t go into financial details, it’s interesting to hear the relevant earnings call comments from the new CEO Brian Krzanich:

• There are about 50 design wins on Baytrail. (We assume across all versions.)
• “About half” of the 50 design wins are 2-in-1 devices. (later clarified to be 20-25 design wins.) We can assume that most of those will be Windows 8.1 devices.
• Up to half of the design wins will be BayTrail Tablets on Android.
• 8-10 systems on shelf by Black Friday, most of those being Android tablets.

It stands to reason that if 50% of the devices will be running Android and about 40% are 2-in-1’s which we assume will be running Windows 8.1 then that doesn’t leave much space for pure Windows 8.1 tablets. In fact the one’s we’ve seen so far, the Dell Venue Pro 8, Toshiba Encore, Acer Iconia W4, HP Omni 10,  Sharp Mebius Pad and Lenovo Miix 8 could be all we see for a while.

If our poll is any indication, most of the interest is in the 2-in-1’s so it’s exciting to imagine what could be coming in that area.  The Fujitsu Q584, ASUS T100, Dell Venue 11 Pro and HP Pavilion X2 cover four of the major brands but you can be sure that Acer is working on something along the lines of the P3, that Lenovo will update the Lynx at some point and that Microsoft’s rumoured Surface Mini is likely to be built on Baytrail. There’ll be a number of re-branded OED devices too. The major company that hasn’t made any significant Windows tablet announcements in this space yet is Samsung. It’s difficult to imagine that they would hold-back until 2014.

The ASUS Transformer T100 will be available from Friday (18th October – Windows 8.1 official launch day. Windows 8.1 upgrade downloads start tomorrow, the 17th.) and we’re also expecting the two Dell Venue Pro products to be available during the first weeks of November.

As for Baytrail-M products , the information we have points to Q1 2014 for those as 64-bit drivers and firmware are finalised. Baytrail-M is unlikely to be used for 8-inch tablets but do expect 2-in-1s, larger buy paxil online tablets and even some laptops to appear using the platform.

Source: Intel

For just $399 you can be one of the first to pick up the quad-core Baytrail-based ASUS Transformer Book T100 Windows 8.1 2-in-1 that we saw launched at IDF last month. We were impressed! $399 gets you the 64GB version (there’s a 32GB version but we advise going for the one with the bigger storage.) It should ship soon after 18th October.

A quick re-cap on the key ASUS Transformer Book T100 specifications:

It’s a Baytrail – Z3740 (nominal 1.33Ghz quad-core with boost to 1.8Ghz) – which should bring in a really good improvement over the Clovertrail-based tablets of the previous generation. The 10.1-inch screen cheap xenical online is IPS and has a 1366.768 screen. 2GB of RAM should be OK for the Windows 8.1 32bit OS and included Office software. The battery is in the tablet and it’s a 31Wh unit that will give you anything from 5-10 hours of working time, depending on what you’re doing and how bright you’ve got the screen. There’s a USB3.0 port on the dock so running it through a DisplayLink dock to a larger screen should not be a problem. There’s a Micro HDMI and Micro USB on the tablet.

Here’s an interesting bit of information. Amazon say that the USB port on the tablet supports “charging and USB device.” Does that mean the tablet can be trickle charged via USB? That would be great for mobility.

The tablet weighs just 1.2 pounds and the unit together just 2.4lbs. This is a product high on our list.

The Amazon order page is here. Do let us know if you’ve ordered and what you’re planning to use the T100 for.

Our hands-on below. More information and discussion on the product page.

Thanks to Kyle for the tip.

Toshiba Germany have today confirmed that the Toshiba Encore is coming soon. While no more detail on specifications was given we’ve already managed to pick most of the detail up from our hands-on at IFA. (The product information page is here.)

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Update: Full Dell Venue 8 Pro Specifications now in the database (and we’re adding more content as we find it.)

I’ve managed to get a video close-up of the Dell Venue Window 8, 8-inch tablet. Watch the video and you’ll here the product manager give some new information. I had hands-on too and it feels absolutely great, a real quality tablet. 400gm in weight is amazing.

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Update: Hands-on video, specs and image set now posted here.

Developing: Asus announced the T100 Baytrail Transformer at the IDF day 2 keynote. It’s based on Baytrail.

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Information coming in from IFA…

Toshiba just announced what could be the first Bay Trail tablet. ‘Latest’ Atom technology wasn’t detailed because it’s ‘so new’ so we can assume Bay Trail I think.

• 299 Euro start price.
• Full Office included
• ‘Newest’ Atom with LP DDR3 (Bay  Trail?)
• 2GB RM
• Array mic
• 2 cameras (8MP)
• 1280×800 screen
• Micro HDMI
• Micro USB 2.0

Stay tuned while we find out more and get some hands-on.