Windows 8 will include Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization tool in an effort to attract developers, IT pros, and other users who need to run, test, or support virtual environments.

Describing the move in the latest edition of the "Building Windows 8" blog, Mathew John, a program manager on Microsoft's Hyper-V team, noted that Hyper-V has previously been available only in recent server-based editions of Windows, making Windows 8 the first client OS to include the feature.

Virtualization tools such as Hyper-V allow users to run multiple operating systems and environments on the same machine. That's helpful for developers and other individuals for testing purposes. But it's also increasingly used by IT administrators who need to set up and support virtualized PCs.

"Hyper-V enables developers to easily maintain multiple test environments and provides a simple mechanism to quickly switch between these environments without incurring additional hardware costs," John explained. "For example, we release pre-configured virtual machines containing old versions of Internet Explorer to support Web developers. The IT administ... [Read more]

Adobe Systems has released its first update to Edge, a tool designed to help the company capitalize on the growing array of Web standards useful for bringing publishing and applications to the Web.

Adobe released a preview version of Edge in July and promised frequent updates on the way to a full-fledged 2012 product release. "This update has been focused on fit and finish--bug fixes and many enhancements to existing features that we think will make the product feel much easier to use," Adobe said in a forum post.

The tool has the potential to bring some of Adobe's substantial design expertise to the difficulties of making flashy Web sites that don't actually use Flash. However, some some Web experts criticized Edge's coding approach, such as its lack of support for the new "canvas" 2D drawing technology in HTML5.

Mozilla's Chris Heilmann offers a good summary of the programming pushback against Edge. Adobe defended its approach, though.

"We needed to start somewhere...The big thing to keep in mind is that this is a Preview 1, not a Version 1, and we will be looking to expand support in future rele... [Read more]

Imagine this with an animated rolling pin that seems to jump right off the page--er, screen.

Every single children's book for the iPad, from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Yertle the Turtle," has one thing in common: it's not about your kid.

JibJab Jr. Books changes all that, putting your child's face and name front and center in a personalized, animated iPad storybook. It's really cool--but also oddly flawed.

You've heard of JibJab, right? The service was originally known for its satiric videos (most notably "This Land," one of my all-time favorites), and later for its Starring You vids--which insert your mug into various animated clips.

That's the tech that drives JibJab Jr. Books, which comes with one free book: "The Biggest Pizza Ever." To get started, you create a boy or girl character using a photo in your library or Facebook account. (iPad 2 users can also snap a photo on the fly.) Then, with a little zooming and rotating, you position the face just so, ... [Read more]