Posts Tagged ‘microsoft/news’

Week in Microsoft: Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Live 4.0 rumors

// November 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Let’s look back at the week that was in Microsoft news. Here were the top stories: Windows 7 SP1 beta rumored by end of 2009, RTM summer 2010 : Windows 7 may be out, but Microsoft is of course still hard at work improving the operating system. Rumor has it that SP1 for Windows 7 will come sooner than it did for Windows Vista. Will Messenger finally get tabbed conversations? : Will Windows Live Messenger finally get the most-requested feature from its users, tabbed conversations? Early indications shows it’s probable, though nothing is set in stone.

Week in gaming: Modern Warfare 2 PC, Torchlight, Dragon Age

// November 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

This week we take a look at just how much content and choice is missing from the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 , and the news is not good for fans of the PC as a gaming platform. We also take a look at how to score some cheap consoles this weekend, why you should be playing Torchlight , and what one Marine thinks about the controversial content of Modern Warfare 2 . It was a busy week in gaming, so let’s take a look at what people were talking about.

Our November Thanksgiving giveaway

// November 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

We are kicking off the first of many recurring monthly contests for you, our readers!  Each month you will be able to enter to win various illustrious prizes. Premier Subscribers have the additional benefit of being automatically entered each month, and don’t have to worry about entering each time.  This month the giveaway is an Xbox 360 game pack featuring five great games (we will work with the winner to make sure he/she doesn’t get a game already owned). A second place winner will receive the new generation iPod nano (5G). Last but certainly not least, 12 lucky winners will win a guitar shirt provided by Think Geek! I rocked this thing on Halloween, and it was hilarious. Check out this video of someone far more skilled than me making it wail: Frankly, I can’t imagine a better way to get kicked out of a retirement home. Here is how to enter online. Just hit the discussion and tell us your favorite guitar tune. Winners will be drawn at random, so don’t worry if your favorite tune is an REO Speedwagon hit. We won’t count it against you. And just to be clear: Premier Subscribers are entered automatically (but you can still tell us your favorite tune if you want to). You’ll need to register an account if you don’t have one.  The contest will close at the end of the month (when another one will soon after begin). The official rules can be found here .  Unrelated to the contest, I am also pleased to announce that Premier Subscribers will shortly be receiving a Think Geek coupon code good for $5 off purchases of $25, or $10 off $40 . This could help with your holiday shopping. Be sure to verify that your email address attached to your registration is current and accurate. 

Developers stealing from developers: an App Store tale

// November 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

If you are Paul Haddad of TapBots, LLC , it isn’t unusual to get requests for contract work. When your applications are as eye-catching and functional as his, you garner attention. So when he received an e-mail earlier this month with a subject line of “I’m interested in Tapbots,” it didn’t really come as much of a surprise. What was surprising was the message content.  This prospective client wasn’t looking to hire TapBots for any development work, they were looking for confirmation that a development firm out of India did the coding on ConvertBot, a popular TapBots application. The client had found Trucid , the supposed coders of ConvertBot, on the Rentacoder.com website, a virtual cork board where companies can hang their business cards. Trucid quoted a sum of $2,400 for an application similar to ConvertBot. The only problem? TapBots designs and writes all of its applications entirely in house. 

Week in Microsoft: Windows 7 reviewed, crapware-free PCs

// October 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Let’s look back at the week that was in Microsoft news. Here were the top stories: Hasta la Vista, baby: Ars reviews Windows 7 : With much fanfare and even a few parties, Windows 7 has arrived. In this extensive review, Ars dives deep into Microsoft’s new OS offering to see what’s new, what’s still the same, and whether it’s worth upgrading. Microsoft selling crapware-free PCs in its stores : The computers at Microsoft Stores don’t have the crapware that Windows PCs typically come with, but they still have an assortment of Microsoft and Adobe software. Most controversially, they include Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Security Essentials.

Week in tech: getting fast fiber in your town, quantum gravity, Mozilla Raindrop

// October 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Want 50Mbps Internet in your town? Threaten to roll out your own . ISPs may not act for years on local complaints about slow Internet—but when a town rolls out its own solution, it’s amazing how fast the incumbents can deploy fiber, cut prices, and run to the legislature. What a photon it was: a 31GeV gamma ray picked up by the orbiting Fermi Telescope. Because of the timing of its arrival, an entire class of quantum gravity models suddenly seems unlikely . More data of this sort may be coming soon, as scientists have now confirmed the oldest supernova yet detected, dating from just 630 million years after the big bang.

Voice recognition gets "cloudy," but is it the "new touch"?

// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

According to Microsoft this week, “voice is the new touch.” Never mind that we’ve been hearing the “voice recognition will change the world” mantra for more than a decade now; this time, it’s the real deal! And the company might be right, thanks in part to the peculiar power of the cloud. With the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft is again talking up its voice recognition efforts, which extend from operating systems to cars to mobile phones. The company has certainly been hammering away at the technology for quite some time; limited versions have been included in Office for years, and a full speech recognition package was built into Vista. Bill Gates has also been predicting the rise of voice communication for a decade.

FCC proposes network neutrality rules (and big exemptions)

// October 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

As expected , the FCC laid out its draft network neutrality rules at an open meeting today. Despite the partial dissent of the two Republican commissioners, the pro-neutrality faction has won a major rhetorical battle; even its toughest opponents sing the praises of a “free and open Internet.” The draft rules are short, taking up less than two pages of text. At their heart are the four existing “Internet freedoms” that the FCC approved back in 2005:

Hands on with Bing’s real-time Twitter search

// October 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Bing has gained access to the entire public Twitter feed, which has enabled Microsoft to launch Twitter real-time search results in beta over at Bing.com/Twitter . Microsoft isn’t the only one, as Google announced its own Twitter search deal within hours. Microsoft has also announced a global partnership with Facebook that will bring the social site’s status updates to Bing search results, but that experience will be available at a later date that Microsoft refused to reveal. Both the Twitter and Facebook deals are nonexclusive, but Google doesn’t yet have an actual implementation, so the company is currently playing catch-up with the underdog of search. Given what Bing is offering right now though, we wouldn’t be surprised if Google did more than just catch up.

Windows 7 is here

// October 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Windows 7 is now for sale around the world. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is officially kicking off the Windows 7 launch at an event in New York City. Microsoft’s partners will be unveiling new hardware and OEMs are now no longer recommending Vista to consumers and are switching their default choice to Windows 7. Today is easily the most important day for Microsoft this year (the operating system’s RTM date of July 22, 2009 comes in at a close second place). Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening today.

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