Gadgetory

it's Wednesday September 14 2011 I'm Wilson Tang on cnn.com and it's time to get loaded at the build conference Microsoft preview the next Windows operating system and it works on both tablets and standard desktops and laptops windows 8 will feature a new user interface mode inspired by Windows Phone 7 Metro design in the touch interface gone are the classic start menu and icons instead it uses rectangular tiles to display apps and information like upcoming calendar events email and news feeds to encourage programmers to build apps for Microsoft gave 5,000 developers a samsung tablet with the new windows 8 operating system but windows 7 isn't going anywhere as microsoft said it would still offer the familiar windows user interface if you want to try windows 8 yourself you can head on over to build windows com to download a preview copy if you are too lazy before to group your Facebook friends in different lists now Facebook is doing it automatically for you the social network announced it is adding a feature this week called smart list smart list automatically group friends into categories like work school family and city based on information in their profiles users can also lump connections in categories called close friends acquaintances and restricted but Facebook won't automatically decide who goes in those categories that's up to you don't worry any previously created list will still be there hoping to compete against plans offered by virgin mobile boost mobile and metropcs Verizon is offering a new cheap no contract prepaid plan on Thursday for fifty dollars a month the Unleashed plan gives prepaid customers unlimited talk text and web but it's only available on three feature phones not smart phones verizon tested the unleashed plan earlier this year in Southern California and Florida travel deal sites like kayak and TripAdvisor have a new competitor in the game Google you can now pull up a list of cheap airline flights with a quick search users can either go to google.com / flights or type in the phrase in a search like flights from New York to San Francisco Google will then provide a list of flights in addition the service can also search by price destination and even travel time that features an extension of Google's recent acquisition of airline data company ITA software Intel's ivybridge ultrabooks are on display at the intel developer forum this week as manufacturers hope to catch on to the MacBook Airs popularity OEM showed off working models of ultrabooks that's Intel's name for ultra thin and light notebooks with a new ivy bridge processor chip the new CPUs are the first to use Intel's 3d transistor technology giving a noticeable boost to features like graphics raw processing performance and energy efficiency Ivy Bridge chips are expected in the first half of next year the t-mobile HTC Sensation just got an upgrade from the doctor dr. dre that is the new HTC sensation XE will integrate technology from Beats Electronics the company HTC acquired a stake in last month it will not only boost the sound quality experience of the handset but also comes with a pair of beats by dr. dre headphones which are designed to soup up the call clarity and sound the phone itself also has an upgraded 1.5 gigahertz dual-core processor but no details yet on availability or cost in North America it will be arriving in late-september in Europe Asia the Middle East and Africa those are your headlines for today I'm Wilson tang for cnet.com and you've just been loaded