Microsoft releases first Windows 8 details

Overnight (for those of us in Europe and Asia) Microsoft gave out the first details on the next version of its Windows operating system, Windows 8.

At the D9 conference in California, Microsoft's Windows head honcho Steven Sinofsky gave a demonstration of how Windows 8 will look and feel.

'Feel' is the operative word. The new edition is designed completely for touch-screens, which makes sense of the company's earlier announcements that it would be making the operating system available on the ARM processors commonly used on tablet computers as well as the AMD/Intel chips of desktops and laptops.

Sinofsky admitted that Microsoft had made some omissions: "We didn't do the iPhone" he said in response to conference host Walt Mossberg's question about what it had missed.

Although it's built to be compatible with older software it has a completely new interface based on tablet PC use. Users can also use the standard, familiar Windows desktop, however, as well as switching directly between the two, or even running the two side by side.

Microsoft is holding a press conference at the Computex Taipei 2011 trade show, at 10am local time (3am GMT). We'll bring you all the latest as it happens.