Metro is irrefutably beautiful, but the imminence of Microsoft's bold new UI in Windows 8 has a lot of power users worried about just how they're going to be able to function with the new system. Judging by how multi-display systems seem to be working, the answer seems to be "more or less the same." Read More >

Station Saint-Martin along Paris's Metro Line 8 & 9 was closed in 1939, at the start of WWII, and although reopened once the war had ended, the station was ultimately shut for good due its close proximity (100m) to another Metro station. Read More >

After decades of urban evolution, the world's major subway systems appear to be converging on an ideal form. Read More >

People tend to think of Macs as the "creative" computer and Windows as the "business" computer, but those lines have been blurred for years. System administrators figured out how to support iPhones for enterprise email; Windows Phone looks great from a design perspective, and have you noticed that Apple doesn't even ship a basic image editor anymore, and yet Microsoft remembers to include MS Paint? Read More >

Almost every photo of just about anyone we see in the media has had the photoshop treatment. Slice a bit of fat off here, smooth that out, take out the imperfections there – man kind at its most unobtainable. When it comes to tech, though, you wouldn’t expect a manufacturer to photoshop out a bulge on its handset just to make it look a bit thinner in an advert, but it appears that’s exactly what HTC’s done to its One X. Read More >

It's Apple, not Microsoft, whose products have long been known for careful minimalism. However, Redmond is evolving, relying heavier on Metro, the simple, design philosophy marked by simple typography and big blocks of colour that is infiltrating most of its platforms. Read More >

How do you predict the future? It's easy: There's going to be a Windows 9 in a few years. As for what might be inside Microsoft's future operating system, however, that's a whole ‘nother ballgame. Read More >

While we're huge fans of Windows 8's Metro interface, there are plenty of folks who'd rather never let it see the light of day. If you're one of them, our friends at Laptop Mag explain how to quash it from the get-go. Read More >

The Verge reports that Microsoft Zune and Windows Live apps will not be included in the upcoming preview of Windows 8—at least not the way we're used to seeing them. Though the brands and apps will be gone, their functionality will be included in other parts of the OS. Read More >

This is Bill Flora. He helped lead the team credited with designing Metro, the tile-based Windows Phone UI that will constitute the core of Windows 8's interface on touch-screen devices. Flora is understandably proud of his creation, "It was fresh." he told CNet, "It wasn't Apple." That's good because apparently everything else on his desk is. Read More >

There are lot of hard jobs at Microsoft. Like the guy who collects Steve Ballmer's dry cleaning. But Sam Moreau just might have the hardest gig in Redmond. Or at least the most harrowing. Over the past five years, he's taken on the tiny task of redesigning the operating system used by like a billion people all over the world. You know, NBD. Read More >

Kazakhstan isn't the first country I'd associate with modernism and gleaming infrastructure, but according to photos from English Russia, I'm dead wrong: the Altmay Metro is gorgeous. And, shocking to any urbanite, gorgeously clean, like Star Trek with more maids. Read More >

London’s set to get Europe’s largest free Wi-Fi zone with a partnership between O2, Westminister and Kensington and Chelsea Borough Councils. The deal will mean the entire boroughs will be blanketed with free Wi-Fi access with the “Metro” network infrastructure attached to lampposts and other “street furniture”. Read More >

On December 6th, Microsoft will officially release a new Xbox 360 dashboard update to all Xbox users. We've played around with it for a while now and can say that the Xbox has never looked so good. Read More >

Two things. One, we're going to need a lot of hand sanitizer if Microsoft is right about the all-touch-everything future. Two, I'm surprised how much I like Microsoft's vision—it's futuristic, natural and metro-y. Read More >