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Those of you planning your next getaway can get a helping hand from Microsoft's Windows 8 Travel app.

Introduced in the Windows 8 Release Preview, the Travel app conjures up photos, articles, and loads of other data on vacation spots throughout the world. You can use the app to find the perfect paradise or look up information if you already know where you're going.

You can also get details on airports, hotels, and restaurants, and even book your air travel and make your hotel reservations by going through the app itself. Here's a quick look at how … Read more

Printing from a Windows 8 Metro app may throw you for a curve at first. But the process works fine once you get used to it.

For the Windows 8 Release Preview, Microsoft tweaked the way you print content, at least for Metro apps. Instead of choosing a print command from within the app itself, you print using the Charms bar. Selecting the Device charm provides access to your printer, among other devices. From there you can configure the various settings for your print job.

Here's how to print from a Metro app in Windows 8:

The Twitter client MetroTwit is now a full-fledged Metro app available free through Microsoft's Windows store.

MetroTwit users who install the app in the Windows 8 Release Preview will find it similar in many ways to its Windows desktop counterpart.

The app starts off by displaying a column for your traditional Twitter timeline. Clicking on a tweet opens an app bar at the bottom of the screen with a variety of options. You can view the tweet full-screen, reply to it, retweet it, and mark it as a favorite. More options let you open the tweet at Twitter's … Read more

If you have used OS X, then you likely have at least come across Apple's Preview application, which is Apple's included program for providing basic viewing, editing, and conversion capabilities for PDF and image files. While the program is useful for opening and managing individual files, there might be times when you would like to open groups or folders of files.

One option for doing this is to select the various files to open in the Finder, and then open them in preview by dragging them to the Preview application's icon. However, you can also do this … Read more

Twitter is partnering with a variety of online media companies to expand the range of content available for preview from within tweets.

The microblogging site announced today it has introduced an enhanced version of "expanded Tweets" that allows users to preview stories, images, and videos linked to within tweets. While Twitter already offered the ability to see Instagram photos or watch YouTube videos, the site is now partnering with a "diverse and growing group" of media sites such as The Wall Street Journal and Time to deliver richer content in tweets.

"When you expand a … Read more

On Monday, shortly after Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, we showed you how to install the first iOS 6 developer preview on your iOS devices, but not an Apple TV.

As I previously warned, and will warn again, installing a beta operating system is for developers who are testing applications. It is not for individuals. There will be bugs and issues, sometimes rendering your device near useless.

You will need to be part of the iOS Developer Program with Apple and have access to the proper files, as well as access to registering the UDID (Unique Device Identifier ) of … Read more

Dominated by Metro apps, the Windows Store has landed its first desktop program.

Office 2010 is now available through the online store, making good on Microsoft's promise that it would offer both desktop and Metro apps for Windows 8 users. But there is a key difference between the two.

Users can download both the free and paid Metro apps directly from the store. A simple Install button downloads and then installs the app in the background. An alert flashes on the screen once the app is fully installed.

The listings for desktop software serve more as pointers to external … Read more

One of the benefits of the Metro Start screen are live tiles, which can display the latest info from your e-mail, calendar, contacts, and other apps. How do you enable that feature?

You first need to open and potentially set up the app for which you want to see a live tile. Among the apps in the new Windows 8 Release Preview that can tap into this feature are Mail, People, Calendar, Photos, Weather, News, and Sports.

Just opening certain apps will turn on the live tile feature. For example, open the News and Weather apps and then return to … Read more

Have any of you tried to install the new Windows 8 Release Preview only to face the message: "Your PC's CPU isn't compatible with Windows 8."

If so, the solution to the problem may lie in your computer's BIOS.

Several perplexed users chiming in on Microsoft's Answers forum have all reported similar errors when trying to install the new Release Preview. I myself ran into issues when I tried to install the RP as a virtual machine on one of my laptops.

The first step suggested by Microsoft is to see if the following … Read more