Back in September, Microsoft program manager Daniel Moth indicated during a Q&A session on MSDN that DirectX 11.1 was going to be exclusive to Windows 8, shunning Windows 7 users the same way DirectX 11 initially shunned pre-Windows 7 OSes (it was later made available to Vista and Windows Server 2008). If you were hoping Microsoft would have a similar change of heart and bring DX11.1 to Windows 7, you're in luck.

Believe us when we say that we know the Minority Report comparisons are getting stale whenever there's a technology introduced that comes even remotely close. However, it's also never been more appropriate than with new touchless gesture technology from Ellpitic Labs. Using ultrasound technology, Elliptic Labs has designed and launched the first commercial application of touchless gestures for Windows 8.

Opera 12.10 dashes to the desktop today, and there are plenty of feature enhancements for both Windows and Mac users alike. Chief among them is basic touch support in Windows 8, so if you're rocking a touchscreen monitor, you can pinch-to-zoom the browser. Over in Apple's orchard, Opera 12.10 introduces support for "Retina" displays and plays nice with the Notification Center in the newest version of Mac OS X.