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All posts tagged "Microsoft"


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Rampant Rumour: The Microsoft Phone, Powered by Nvidia?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Pocket PC Talk" @ 09:53 PM

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/89639...ith-nvidia.aspx

"What do you get if you take an iPhone, remove the clean UI, user friendliness, nice industrial design, battery life, cachet, functional OS, and in general everything else that makes it worthwhile? The new Microsoft phone, powered by Nvidia. Yeah, you heard it right, MS is going to make its own branded phone, after all, everyone kicking the company around the block has one, so it should too! If you were wondering why Nvidia never mentions the phrase Linux when talking Tegra, even though it is the most appropriate OS for the chip, now you know. NV appears to have sold Linux out to get the MS flagship deal, how nice of them"

This is easily the snarkiest, most acid-dripping hack job I've seen in months - and I was shocked until I saw that it's syndicated content from The Inquirer...then it all made sense to me. Putting aside the ridiculous excuse for journalism - it's really an editorial, not a news story - there are some interesting rumours. Is this the fabled Zune phone? Or some other phone-based project? I refuse to believe that Microsoft would sacrifice all their gains with Windows Mobile partners all over the world by releasing their own Windows Mobile phone - that's just not going to happen, despite some people believing that it's the only way we're going to get the "ultimate" Windows Mobile phone. Is this a Zune phone then? Possibly. When you consider that the third-generation Zune hardware is identical to the second-generation hardware other than a capacity bump, the Zune team has had to be working on something. If Microsoft did release a Zune phone, they'd cause major rifts with their Windows Mobile partners, and those partnerships are worth a lot more to Microsoft than the MP3 player partners they alienated when they released the Zune.

2009 is going to be a very interesting year, that's for sure!

UPDATE: CNBC says this phone is code-named "Pink", but doesn't have much else to say about it.


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Microsoft Sidesight

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 02:00 AM

http://gizmodo.com/5066691/microsof...s-have-it-wrong

"Many of us are pretty happy with touchscreen implementation in products like the iPhone or HTC Touch. But Microsoft (teaming with HTC hardware, at least in this photograph) has developed a new sort of touchscreen that doesn't involve touching the screen at all. Instead, IR beams shoot out from the sides of the phone and track your gestures on any surface. The beams are arranged in two rows and spaced 10 millimeters apart, aimed horizontally preventing overhead light sources from interfering. Users can then operate the device using both hands without even touching the phone, scrolling with vertical or horizontal movements, rotating an object on the screen by twisting or even scrolling on one side wile writing with a stylus on the other."

This seems like an absolutely brilliant idea. I've never been a fan of touchscreens, especially on small devices since your fingers end up blocking the view and you get fingerprints all over the place. The only downside I see is that it would not be overly practical to use while holding the device. Otherwise, nice to see an outside the box idea for user input.


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Microsoft SyncToy v2.0

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Software" @ 06:30 PM

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en

"There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality. Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder."

I installed this yesterday and I really like it. It has finally let me set up backups the way they should be done and should be much speedier. I've actually set it up to do three separate synchs of my user data (which totals 82 GB). The first synch goes to a second hard drive installed in my PC. I set a Windows task to automatically perform this synch ever time I boot up. A second synch occurs weekly to network storage. Finally I set up an on-demand synch with a USB drive to let me quickly update my off-site backups. Now that they are all set up, synching the changes will be MUCH quicker than the full backups I was previously doing. Plus, having a fully automated synch will protect me from my own laziness!


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Live Mesh Goes into Public Tech Preview

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 10:00 AM

http://https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Welcome.aspx

Microsoft has opened up their Live Mesh service to the general public in the form of a "tech preview" which is a nicer way of saying "mostly still beta". I've been using Live Mesh for a couple of months now, and it's a pretty cool service. You set a folder to be "Live Meshed" and not only will it be kept in sync between multiple computers, the contents of the folder will be kept in the cloud (where you have 5 GB of storage). I think there's a lot of potential here, especially since they've stated they'll be targeting mobile devices. I've been dreaming of having my FlexWallet file be pushed to my device when there's a change in it, because connecting my device with my desktop computer is something I just don't do anymore. I was hoping for years that the FolderShare team would release a Windows Mobile client, but they're still struggling to get the service stable, so no joy there. If you have a desktop and a laptop, and haven't checked out Live Mesh yet, you should.


Thursday, June 5, 2008

Microsoft Launches Connected Services Accelerator Program

Posted by Nurhisham Hussein in "Pocket PC News" @ 09:00 PM

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-03MCSAPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press Releases

"Today at the GSM Association (GSMA) Mobile Innovation Marketplace — Americas, Microsoft Corp. announced the Connected Services Accelerator Program, a series of projects designed to incubate, and ultimately commercialize, new types of consumer, business and mobile services through collaboration with independent software vendors (ISVs), developers and operators. Microsoft will collaborate with SingTel on the program’s first project, the Mobile Connected Services Accelerator. All Accelerator projects will utilize Microsoft Connected Services Sandbox as the platform for the creation, development and testing of these innovative new services."

Before anybody gets too excited, the joint program with SingTel is meant for vertical industries only (Singtel is based in Singpaore, but also owns Australia's Optus, and has offices throughout the Asian region). Having said that, it also covers "Windows Vista-enabled mobile broadband PCs", whatever that means, and SingTel will provide the infrastructure and environment for development and testing. This initial program will run from July 1 to September 30, and will be open to all developers and ISVs with annual revenues not exceeding US$20 million and are not owned by a publicly traded company or subsidiary, or mobile operator. In other words, this is a pretty good opportunity for independent developers to get into the vertical industries software market. More information can be gotten here.


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