Microsoft's Windows 8 software that works with the Metro user interface will not have support for Adobe Flash- one of the Internet's most popular technologies.

Dean Hachamovitch, chief of IE development at the software firm, confirmed that Metro user interface would lack support for Flash software.

While sharing the details of its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system at its Build developer conference in Redmond this week, Microsoft presented its vision for computing in a tablet era --- a vision which is fairly in contrast to the one that rival Apple has offered!

In an evidence that app developers are seemingly interested in developing content for the forthcoming Windows 8 version of Microsoft’s operating system, the software maker said in a recent statement that nearly 500,000 copies of the preview version of the OS have been downloaded by the developers.

Microsoft’s annual developer conference on Tuesday witnessed the company handing out 5,000 sleek Samsung tablet computers equipped with a test version of Windows 8 - the temporary code name for the software giant’s next operating system which boasts special features customized for touchscreens as well as tablet devices.

The Windows Phone Marketplace, which debut less than a year ago, has so far been enjoying fairly steady growth, figures posted on the Windows Phone developer blog revealed.

According to the newly posted figures, the Windows Phone Marketplace hit the 30,000 app milestone earlier this month. The figure is impressive when we take the age of the Marketplace into account.

The number of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace was 11,500 and 25,000 as of March and July, respectively, this year.

“Kinect Star Wars," the eagerly anticipated title that was announced at E3, has been postponed to the next year, Microsoft confirmed.

Previously, the release of the title was slated in time for Christmas/holiday season this year, but now it will not be released until 2012.