The mouse. An icon of computing. An crucial tool of the workplace and the residence. It can show off great style, be purely functional or be an out and out gaming plaything. It can boast two buttons, seventeen buttons or be buttonless. The mouse can be a huge, hunch-backed beast, or a svelte thin-as-a-PC Card travel buddy.

The laptop or computer mouse, in other words, can say as much about you as anything else you attach to your PC or Mac. The latest mouse to enter this throng is the cautiously stylish Microsoft Touch Mouse, and it’s a freak of nature.


Let us backtrack a little. Those sober lines could be observed as the height of style to some. Plus there are some neat little tricks and concepts on display to make you want to rub its sleek form.

There is a major issue that requirements voicing for this chunky rodent though. It fails on one key level, and that’s that it is horrible to in fact click anything with.

The quantity of force required to click an icon, menu or application with the Microsoft Touch Mouse is much more than any other mouse we’ve come across. It is extremely frustrating, and this alone had us reaching for any other mouse we could lay our hands on rather than attempting to interact with this monstrosity.


The gestures themselves on the Microsoft Touch Mouse are welcome adequate.

Smoothly slide two fingers to the left and you’ll snap the existing window there. Two to the right and it’ll snap that side instead. Lay three fingers on its textured surface and push forward and you’ll see all the current open windows, while three down will minimise all.

The problem is, whilst messing about with your window arrangements you’ll also locate you are scrolling about inside those Windows, and typically performing points you do not actually want to do. Combine this with not becoming able to effortlessly click on anything, and you have an input device that fails at its most simple level.


There are some good style selections – the tiny USB wireless dongle can be stowed in the belly of the mouse when not in use, for example, which is very neat indeed.

Wireless mice do boast a particular freedom compared to their long-tailed brethren, though their reliance on batteries weighs against them.

If we have to use a wireless mouse then we’d a lot prefer to have one that recharges when plugged in, or has the choice of getting wired or wireless, such as with Microsoft’s own Sidewinder X8. 


Overall, this is a poor excuse for a mouse. It is attractive adequate (if not very for everybody), and an important addition to the Microsoft stable (it did require to show that anything Apple could do, it could do… badly), obtainable for about £50, but it is not the winner it could have been.

It is horrible to use, and prone to randomness. Microsoft is responsible for some of the most essential mice in history of PCs. This, regrettably sufficient, really is not one of them. 
 


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Thank, gawd it’s Friday! That’s right folks, the week is already over and with the end to every day comes the Android Overload. This is the place you can come to scrape up every last bit of Android news that didn’t make it onto our front page. Not too much on the menu here for you tonight but I’m sure you’ll find something to quench your Android appetite until Monday. Hope you guys have a great weekend and stay safe! Muah!

• Test photos show you the camera quality of a bevy of upcoming Android devices. [PocketNow]
• Google accuses Microsoft of revealing their confidential proprietary source code. [BI]
• AT&T files 8 federal suits aimed at law firm trying to stop T-Mobile merger. [AllThingsD]
• The rugged, waterproof Samsung Galaxy Xcover has been confirmed for a UK launch later this year. [EuroDroid]
• The Samsung Galaxy S II in Ceramic White will be available in Japan via NTT DoCoMo mid-September, pre-orders start August 24th. [SamsungHub]

Android Phone Fans

Microsoft has dabbled in online collaboration just before. The SharePoint service may not have set the planet alight, but it was a dependable package.

Microsoft Office 365 unites SharePoint with the online version of Microsoft Office – Office Internet Apps.

Given that the launch of Windows Telephone 7, Microsoft has been much more focused than ever on smartphones, and its renewed interest in this marketplace has led to some helpful smartphone integration.

The 2010 versions of Microsoft Exchange and Lync are also included, providing very good functions for modest companies.

Tying it all together

Office 365 is aimed at little organizations that might not have devoted IT staff, so the ease with which its advanced features can be set up and configured is extremely commendable.

There are short video tutorials that helped us set up Office 365 significantly quicker than we ever managed with SharePoint. When signing up for the service, we were given a ‘.onmicrosoft.com’ domain name. Importing an existing domain name is fairly straightforward, and worth performing if you want to incorporate Office 365 with your existing business web site and email.

If you don’t already have your own site, Office 365 comes with a basic website builder. We had been able to make a reasonable looking internet site in a couple of minutes using the included templates, stock photos and clipart. The internet sites you make with this will not win any style awards, but they appear excellent enough and, most importantly, are straightforward to create.

The Microsoft Exchange 2010 service is the most complex of the services to set up, and possibly the most essential to get correct, but it means you can send and receive emails, and share calendars and contacts. These can be accessed by means of a desktop e-mail program, via a smartphone or by way of Outlook Internet Access – a pared-down web version of Outlook.

Outlook Internet Access 2010 includes some handy updates, like a quicker, a lot more responsive interface and improved support for browsers other than Net Explorer.

Ease of use

We had Office 2010 software program installed on our test machines, and we were able to configure them to interact with 365 by clicking the ‘Set up’ button in the ‘Downloads’ section. This downloaded and installed a number of updates that let us use our desktop applications with 365 – saving documents straight from Word to the on the web SharePoint server, for example.

As you might anticipate from Microsoft, we had to install many updates, with some updated programs then requiring other programs to be updated, and so on. It wasn’t the smoothest of operations, but it was a great time-saver when employed with numerous PCs.

It does mean that you want to have Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 installed if you don’t, some of the most beneficial functions will be lost.

It’s clear that Microsoft Office 365 has been optimised to work with devices running Windows, Microsoft Office and Windows Telephone 7. If your enterprise utilizes OS X, Google Docs or Android smartphones, Google Apps provides far more choice.

Microsoft Office 365 has had by way of lengthy beta testing, and with Microsoft’s expertise in creating office software program, the resulting service strikes a good balance between power, attributes and simplicity. It delivers much the same functionality as Google Apps, with the same 99.9 per cent uptime guarantee, and is just a little a lot more pricey.

Microsoft Office 365 is more streamlined, with its services integrating considerably better than Google’s different goods. If your tiny company already makes use of Microsoft Office products then this is an exceptional accompaniment, although if you do not want to be tied to Microsoft goods, Google Apps presents far more flexibility.

Related Links

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• Read much more software program critiques

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Microsoft has been busy bullying smaller companies into licensing deals over elements of the Android OS that supposedly infringe on some of the Redmond-based software giant’s many patents. Companies with a bit more leverage have been a bit more resistant. Such is the case with Samsung, manufacturer of both Android and Windows handsets. The Korean smartphone maker is reluctant to come to terms with Microsoft, who is reportedly asking for a fee of $ 15 for every Android handset Samsung sells. Samsung has countered the offer with a slightly lower $ 10 per phone and a promise to become a bigger player for Windows Phone 7.

Both offers rise above the $ 5 per phone tax HTC is said to be paying Microsoft, though a deeper history between the two companies probably played a role in that deal. It’s the same sort of business relationship Samsung is hoping will save their company a few dollars. No matter how the money pans out, with more and more manufacturers forking over their dough to Microsoft it is becoming harder and harder for even the major players to avoid striking a deal. The last thing Samsung needs is another drawn-out patent war.

[via Reuters]

Android Phone Fans

Microsoft has been busy bullying smaller companies into licensing deals over elements of the Android OS that supposedly infringe on some of the Redmond-based software giant’s many patents. Companies with a bit more leverage have been a bit more resistant. Such is the case with Samsung, manufacturer of both Android and Windows handsets. The Korean smartphone maker is reluctant to come to terms with Microsoft, who is reportedly asking for a fee of $ 15 for every Android handset Samsung sells. Samsung has countered the offer with a slightly lower $ 10 per phone and a promise to become a bigger player for Windows Phone 7.

Both offers rise above the $ 5 per phone tax HTC is said to be paying Microsoft, though a deeper history between the two companies probably played a role in that deal. It’s the same sort of business relationship Samsung is hoping will save their company a few dollars. No matter how the money pans out, with more and more manufacturers forking over their dough to Microsoft it is becoming harder and harder for even the major players to avoid striking a deal. The last thing Samsung needs is another drawn-out patent war.

[via Reuters]

Android Phone Fans

This morning a report was released stating that Android puts more money in Microsoft’s bank than Windows phone. HTC, which runs Android on a number of its devices is required to pay Microsoft, $ 5 per unit sold, due to an out of court settlements involving patent violation. That being said, if HTC sells around 30 million devices, that would mean they would be paying Microsoft a grand total of (I’m sure our reader can do the math) $ 150 million. Now that’s a good chunk of cash just from HTC that’s going straight to company that owns the mobile platform, Windows Phone.

Now if you take the above information that was released by Citi analyst Walter Pritchard and compare it to Window Phone’s position, Android seems to be the money maker. Microsoft’s information says that Windows Phone has sold 2 million licenses. So at $ 15 a license, that would total to $ 30 million. Not quite the cash cow that Android seems to be.

Microsoft is making truck loads of cash from HTC, so it only make sense they would go after all the other Android device manufacturers, looking for a per unit fee, so as to get a cut of the profits across the board, as also reported by Walter Pritchard.

Microsoft gets paid, Android brings in more dough than Windows Phone

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

My flight from Alaska back to Washington was delayed last night due to a problem with the wing and my first thought went to the Twilight Zone episode where the monster was tearing apart the wing as they flew. I then boarded another plane, fell asleep, and eventually made it home. When I landed I saw all of the Microsoft Nokia news and thought I might really be in a Twilight Zone show or I was still dreaming, but after jumping on Twitter I realized that my ultimate smartphone dream had come true.

I just posted my initial thoughts on the Nokia – Microsoft partnership on my ZDNet site and won’t repeat everything I wrote over there. As you know I am obviously a fan of Nokia smartphones and have been for years. You might also have picked up in my writing here that I am a Windows Phone 7 fan. I am probably one of the very few people in the world that have a love of both platforms and also quite a bit of usage of both under my belt. Needless to say, I am quite ecstatic about the news and think it will result in the best of both resulting in a product that easily competes and in many respects blows away the iOS and Android competition.

There is a great post on the Nokia Conversations site where Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop provide so strong words to support this partnership, including the following:

Together, we have some of the world’s most admired brands, including Windows, Office, Bing, Xbox Live, NAVTEQ and Nokia. We also have a shared understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a mobile ecosystem, which includes the entire experience from the device to the software to the applications, services and the marketplace.

Today, the battle is moving from one of mobile devices to one of mobile ecosystems, and our strengths here are complementary. Ecosystems thrive when they reach scale, when they are fueled by energy and innovation and when they provide benefits and value to each person or company who participates. This is what we are creating; this is our vision; this is the work we are driving from this day forward.

There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.

There will be challenges. We will overcome them.

Success requires speed. We will be swift.

Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.

I LOVE everything they are saying here and like the specifically stated they do indeed need to be swift and get something out this year.

I wrote the following points as I see them from a user perspective:

• All cameras in Microsoft’s smartphones have sucked, but Nokia rules the world with Carl Zeiss optics and imaging technology that rivals high end dedicated cameras
• Nokia has the ONLY penta-band smartphones so it doesn’t matter who your GSM carrier is you can get 3G data support (this includes T-Mobile’s special 1700 MHz band)
• Nokia brings hardware with aluminum colored bodies, Gorilla Glass, HDMI out, USB on-the-go, amazing RF reception and call quality, long battery life, and more
• Windows Phone 7 is amazingly fast and responsive while also being unique
• Windows Phone 7 is rock solid stable and after using it since July 2010 I can confirm it is the MOST stable mobile operating system I have ever used
• Windows Phone 7 gaming rocks, Zune is fantastic, multiple Exchange support is solid, Office integration is great, and developers are building apps
• Email on Symbian blows, but on Windows Phone 7 it absolutely rocks and I prefer to use my WP7 smartphone for email handling over even my Outlook desktop client

I know that die hard Nokia fans will likely react negatively to such a deal with Microsoft, but is that due to some kind of unfounded hatred for the Microsoft name? If you try Windows Phone 7 then you may change your mind. I know that Microsoft has stumbled in the past, as has Nokia. However, there are brilliant people at both companies and the potential for amazing success is there and can be realized through this partnership.

Is anyone else excited about this partnership like I am? Stay tuned for MUCH more of my writing here as I will have a platform that I am very excited about along with hardware that I love. We’ll see how it works out with WPCentral, but since there will still be other Windows Phone 7 makers and Nokia will still make non-WP7 devices we might see both sites remain as they are too.

View full post on Nokia Experts

It’s s done deal. Microsoft and Nokia have agreed to make Windows Phone Nokia’s “principal smartphone strategy”.

This strategy will transition the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners. Nokia expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come, but the smartphone platform of the future is Windows Mobile.

Here are the press releases and coverage from the NY Times, Engadget, Gigaom, C/Net, TechCrunch, and others.

The details of the deal are still being worked out, but here’s a quick summary of what they are working towards:

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy.
• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.
• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.
• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.

It’s serious business. Nokia plans to phase out Symbian, the most popular mobile phone operating system on Earth, almost completely. The latest version, Symbian^3, was officially released in Q4 2010, first used in the Nokia N8.

“Finland will remain our home,” Chief Executive Stephen Elop said in the press conference. But, Nokia will cut jobs in Finland and elsewhere, according to Elop.

“This is the biggest structural reform which has ever impacted new technology in Finland,” Economy Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said in a statement.

Shipments of smartphones, tablets and other app-enabled devices will overtake PCs shipments in the next 18 months, says market research firm IDC. Shipments of personal computers will still continue to increase even as they are surpassed by other devices. According to In-Stat, unit shipments for smartphones will reach nearly 850 million by 2015.

Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker previously predicted the shift to mobile (above). IDC predicts worldwide shipments of smartphones and media tablets will reach 284 million in 2010. In 2011, makers will ship 377 million of these devices, and in 2012, the number will reach 462 million shipments, exceeding PC shipments, says IDC.

Only nine million of India’s 1 billion people have access to broadband. India’s Department of Telecoms hopes the country will have about 48 million broadband users by 2012, and 100 million by 2014.

ABI Research says more than two billion of the world’s population is now being covered by high-speed data networks, with more than 500 3G networks, and over 300 WiMAX and LTE announcements to date. World-wide, mobile devices with integrated wireless broadband are expected to top 2 billion by 2014, according to research firm In-Stat.

View full post on dailywireless.org

“Two turkeys do not make an Eagle”, tweeted Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra.

Gundotra may be referencing Nokia’s annual Capital Markets Day, tomorrow, in London. There, new CEO (and former Microsoft president) Stephen Elop is expected to announce an alliance with Microsoft. Gundotra’s tweet this morning made it very clear who Nokia is going with, says TechCrunch.

An internal memo from Elop to Nokia employees has sparked speculation that the mobile phone maker will largely abandon its own aging operating system, Symbian.

So it’s Microsoft for smartphones.

It seems like a bad move if you look at market share. Nokia has lost their top spot to Android and Android and Nvidia are becoming the new Wintel.

What does Microsoft bring to the party? Cars, games, ARM-based PCs and marketing. What the combination lacks is a tablet strategy, open architecture and market share.

It could be good for consumers. Three strong smart phone operating systems are better than two (Apple and Google). Consumers will determine who has the best approach.

View full post on dailywireless.org

The Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse is yet another innovative addition to the long-line of classic designs that the Microsoft Hardware group has blessed the world with over the years.

The Arc Touch Mouse attempts to take style and function to a new level in the modern mouse world by combining a wireless portable mouse with touch-sensitive features and the BlueTrack sense system.

The result is the Arc Touch. The name partly gives away its key design feature: a flexible rear section that doubles as the main wrist support and also folds flat turning the mouse off and leaving it perfect for carrying.

Beyond its physical design, the Arc Touch mouse uses an Apple Magic Mouse besting touch-sensitive wheel.

With built in haptic feedback this adds a sense of style beyond just its design through unobtrusive technology.

But the real question is it any good to mouse with?

The centrepiece to the Microsoft Arc Mouse is its folding rear, beyond just being a fancy way to turn the mouse on or off, it provides a physical support to the rear of the mouse and offers an ergonomic grip.

Despite a potentially flimsy slim-build it’s more than sturdy enough and offers a pleasant wrist rest in use.

Attached to that fancy switch is the main body of the Arc Touch Mouse, which is mostly the twin mouse buttons and that touch-sensitive scroll wheel.

In use it does make for comfortable mousing, though occasionally your fingers might fall short of the buttons and this can almost tip the mouse over. We know this is designed as a portable mouse but it’s this type of flaw that means this is no gaming mouse.

It’s not going to stay standing in any rigorous deathmatch situations.

The touch-sensitive wheel provides clever haptic-feedback, give it a flick to start scrolling with ‘gravity’ and the scroll plate actually vibrates in line with the speed of the scroll.

It’s clever and works well, though it’s questionable if this is actually better or more precise than a physical wheel.

Powered by two AAA batteries, Microsoft claim a six-month battery life.

The wireless transceiver is one of the smallest we’ve seen and magnetically sticks to the back of the mouse for transit. Finally the tracking is pretty impressive, the best we’ve seen in a wireless mouse with no sign of lag and it even wakes from rest as quickly.

We liked:

The action is very smooth and the tracking is excellent. It’s certainly an eye catching design and eminently portable.

The wireless ability works excellently and is highly responsive.

We disliked:

Despite its beautiful design the Microsoft Arc Touch isn’t perfect, making it lightweight and so more portable has its disadvantages.

It’s certainly not going to be embraced by the gaming community, even those looking for something with more style than substance.

It also lacks side navigation buttons, which we’ve come to rely on.

Plus the price is horrendous, you can pick it up for almost half the original price but even so we’ve like to see a dedicated Li-ion rechargeable pack at this price.

Final word:

If you want to be flash this is a mouse you have to have, for others it’s something to miss

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View full post on TechRadar: All PC & Mac feeds

Microsoft has announced a plug-in for Google’s Chrome web browser that allows Chrome on Windows to play H.264 web video through the HTML5 <video> tag. The new plug-in comes on the heels of Google’s decision to remove H.264 support from Chrome and focus on the company’s competing WebM video codec.

You can grab the new Chrome plugin from Microsoft. Microsoft previously released a similar H.264 plugin for Firefox, which also only supports WebM video.

The video move is the latest sign of a collision between the two tech giants, who now compete directly in search, courtesy of Microsoft’s Bing initiative and mobile, where Google’s Android is taking market share and the new Windows Phone 7 is struggling for a foothold. Google has also launched various cloud-based applications that take aim at Office. This week, the two threw punches over search, with Google claiming Microsoft copies its results, and Microsoft complaining the Google perpetrated a sting worthy of a spy novel.

Now the two are sparing over web video. Google has thrown its weight behind the WebM codec, which the company owns, while Microsoft supports H.264. However, Microsoft says that, provided Google makes some changes, it may be willing to support the WebM codec as well.

While HTML5’s video tag promises a native way to watch video in your browser, video codec support among browsers is divided. Firefox, Opera and Chrome support the WebM codec while Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s IE9 support H.264. As it stands there is no “it just works” solution, which means most websites still use Flash video players.

Microsoft’s H.264 plug-ins for Firefox and Chrome are part of the company’s attempt to be pragmatic — since Windows includes native support for H.264, users should be able to watch H.264 video even if the browser doesn’t support it. On the other side of the coin, Internet Explorer 9 will be able to play WebM video through a similar third-party plug-in.

However, while Microsoft isn’t including native support for WebM in the next version of IE, it doesn’t appear to totally rule out the idea. As part of the plugin announcement, Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for Internet Explorer, outlines some of Microsoft’s problems with the WebM codec. The main problem is that Microsoft is concerned about WebM’s potential patent risks.

Google insists that it owns all of the patents covering WebM and the VP8 video codec. But the company offers no indemnification for costs incurred should a patent lawsuit arise. That means that anyone distributing WebM/VP8 could be on the hook for any patent-related fees that might come up.

Some have dismissed Microsoft’s patent worries as an example of Microsoft spreading “fear, uncertainty and doubt” about WebM, but Microsoft does have history on its side in this case. As Hachamovitch points out, such patent lawsuits often don’t arise until a technology is in widespread use. So just because no one is suing over WebM now, doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. Hachamovitch cites the JPEG photo compression format, pointing out that JPEG was around for ten years before the first patent lawsuits appeared. Eventually the patents in question were ruled invalid, but not before millions of dollars were spent defending and licensing JPEG.

Of course the same patent threats potentially hang over H.264, but the MPEG-LA consortium — the governing body that oversees the patents surrounding H.264 — provides a kind of legal buffer between H.264 licensees and any lawsuit.

Surprisingly, Hachamovitch says that, if Google is willing to indemnify WebM users against patent lawsuits, “Microsoft is willing to commit that we will never assert any patents on VP8.” Of course that doesn’t mean other companies won’t, but it would be a huge step forward for WebM if Microsoft jumped on the bandwagon. Google did not respond to a request to comment in time for this story.

For now at least Microsoft has chosen a pragmatic approach — plugins. There will be a WebM plugin for Internet Explorer and H.264 plugins for Firefox and Chrome. In the end, Windows users will be able to watch just about any video on the web regardless of which browser they’re using. It might not be an ideal solution, but it is one that, from the user’s point of view, just works.

See Also:

• Microsoft Adds H.264 Video Support to Firefox
• Google Dropping H.264 Codec from Chrome Browser [Updated]
• Major Browser Vendors Launch WebM Free Open Video Project
• Microsoft Says Web Video in IE9 Is All About H.264

View full post on Webmonkey

Paramount is releasing ten enhanced movie apps exclusively for Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone users who buy one of the “enhanced” movies, such as “School of Rock”, can tap their mobile screens to learn more about the objects, actors, locations, music and other elements of scenes, reports TechFlash.

Seattle startup Hypershow, which specializes in interactive media technology, developed the software. Hypershow is focusing first on apps that run on Microsoft’s Silverlight. Users can tap or click on objects in a video to find out more about them. Silverlight enhanced features include the ability to create custom clips, view the movie with pop-up trivia powered by ‘Scene It?’, and a Movie Info feature offering users the ability to identify actors, objects, music, and places in the movie, while providing contextual information, such as bios, descriptions, and even maps to the locations.

The independent company, founded last year by Microsoft veterans Tim Harader and Dan Gehred, worked with Paramount Digital Entertainment on the “School of Rock” app. Selling for $9.99, it’s the first in a series of individual movie apps that Paramount plans to release for Windows Phone 7. It can also run on Windows PCs, Macs and set-top boxes running Microsoft’s Windows Embedded.

Even without cross-platform capability, the “School of Rock” app for Windows Phone 7 has been well-received. Released on Dec. 14, it has garnered an average customer rating of 4 1/2 out of 5 stars in the Windows Phone marketplace.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Microsoft today confirmed that the next version of Windows will support ARM-based computer chips, used in smartphones and tablets.

It should help Microsoft extend its operating system to more mobile devices – competing with Apple’s iPad and tablets running Google’s Android.

Today at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft demoed the next version of Windows but would not allow video of the presentation. Windows division President Steven Sinofsky showed the upcoming operating system running on ARM platforms from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, and on the currently supported x86 architecture from Intel.

“What we showed today was a technology preview of how Windows can adapt to run on SoC architectures,” Sinofsky said in a Q&A on Microsoft’s press website. “We are making this announcement now to enable our silicon partners, including new ARM partners, to collaborate across the ecosystem to bring innovation to market with the next version of Windows. We’re hard at work on all the aspects of the next version of Windows and we’ll share more information when the time is right.”

Microsoft did not announce any dates for Windows 8 availability.

There was not much new to talk about at the CES keynote, says the Seattle PI. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a lineup of Windows 7 tablets:

• Dual-Screen PC from Acer. This model features two 14-inch touchscreens mounted face-to-face, like the keyboard and screen on a traditional laptop.
• Samsung PC 7 Sliding Series. This tablet hides a keyboard underneath its glossy touchscreen. You can flip back and forth between the tablet and netbook formats
• Asus Tablet PC. The tablet is a full-power Windows PC running Windows 7 and featuring an Intel Core i5 processor and a capacitive touchscreen. I

All these devices will be on the market within the next few months; although the Asus model is available now on Amazon.com for $999.

The company also annouced a new version of Microsoft Surface. Surface is now just four inches thick and covered in Gorilla Glass. It can handle multitouch from multiple hands and can be wall-mounted.

In other news, Flickr announced it’s launching a Flickr app for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7, said to be available soon.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Microsoft’s new HTML5 Labs experiment

Internet Explorer 9 will be Microsoft’s most standards-compliant browser to date. But it still lags behind the rest of the pack when it comes to supporting the latest and greatest elements of HTML5 and CSS 3.

To address that shortcoming, Microsoft has launched a new HTML5 Labs site to give interested web developers a way to “preview” HTML5 features that won’t be supported in Internet Explorer 9, but could make it into future updates.

HTML5 is still incomplete — the spec changes and evolves on a daily basis, and a few key issues are still undecided. While the more cutting edge web browsers like Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome have opted to support portions of the HTML5 spec that are still very much in flux, Microsoft is taking a more conservative approach, shipping what it calls “mainstream browser” features and skipping the more experimental parts of HTML5.

In a recent blog post, Microsoft’s VP for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, attempted to draw a line between the “prototype implementations” of HTML5 and those features that are “mainstream browser product[s].” While the distinction is Microsoft’s own, and for the most part totally arbitrary since the entire HTML5 spec is technically unfinished, on a practical level, Hachamovitch is right — some HTML5 features are more equal than others.

Curiously, one of the two that Microsoft has thus far included in its new HTML5 Labs is WebSockets. Firefox and Opera recently disabled WebSockets due to a security flaw. There’s a way to fix the flaw, but it will require rewriting some of the WebSockets spec.

Concerns about immature specs are precisely the reason Microsoft is taking a conservative approach to HTML5 in IE9. But to then turn around and offer a “labs” version of Web Sockets — which is absolutely guaranteed to change — seems like strange move on Microsoft’s part. After all, why would developers want to even experiment with something that is not only going to change, but is also vulnerable to attack in its current form?

The other experimental feature in Microsoft’s HTML5 Labs makes more sense — support for IndexedDB. IndexedDB is a draft spec that outlines a method of storing large amounts of data in the browser. Primarily intended for offline web apps, IndexedDB sidesteps some of the problems with current SQL-based offline storage tools and is much easier to work with when you’re using JavaScript.

If you’d like to experiment with Internet Explorer’s take on WebSockets and IndexedDB, head over to the new HTML5 Labs page and follow the installation instructions. While the process of adding these features to IE9 is a little convoluted, it does give you a way to test your apps in IE, which means that when these features finally do make it into an update, your apps will be ready to go.

See Also:

• A Guide to Internet Explorer 9’s HTML5/CSS 3 Support
• Security Flaws Force Firefox, Opera to Turn Off WebSockets
• Mobile Safari Gets More HTML5 Love in iOS Update
• New HTML5 Tools Make Your Browser Sing and Dance
• Microsoft to Double Down on HTML5 With Internet Explorer 9

View full post on Webmonkey

Thanks to licensing issues and exorbitant fees, Mozilla doesn’t support the H.264 video codec in Firefox, but Microsoft (yes, Microsoft) is aiming to change that.

Microsoft has created a Firefox plug-in that will tap into Windows 7’s native H.264 support, allowing Firefox 3.6 and the 4.0 betas to play H.264 encoded video.

If you’d like to give it a try, you can download a copy of the HTML5 Extension for Windows Media Player Firefox Plug-in from Microsoft’s Interoperability Labs.

The HTML5 video tag promises to eliminate the need for third-party plugins like Flash or QuickTime. Sadly, it’s a long way from “promises” to “delivers.” While HTML5 offers a video tag for authors to easily add videos to their webpages, it’s up to the browser to actually play that video. And that’s where the problem arises — what video codec should the browser use?

Apple is standing firm behind the H.264 video codec. But H.264 has licensing requirements, fees and is not free in any sense of the word. Mozilla Firefox supports Ogg Theora and WebM, both of which are open and free. Google’s Chrome supports all three codecs. Opera supports Ogg Theora and WebM. Microsoft has decided to support H.264 and WebM in IE9.

In short, varying codec support across browsers has made native HTML5 video a mess.

Microsoft’s new add-on brings support for H.264 to Firefox whether Mozilla wants it or not. The add-on parses HTML5 pages and replaces video tags with a call to the Windows Media Player plug-in. Unfortunately it’s not perfect. To deal with the different codec support in each browser, many sites use JavaScript to determine the browser’s codec support before presenting a video. If that’s the case, the new add-on won’t work because the detection code won’t see the H.264 support (the H.264 support is an add-on, not a native part of Firefox).

Ironically, native web video isn’t supported at all in Microsoft’s own browsers, regardless of the codec used (IE9 will introduce support for HTML5 video when it is released next year). Third-party developers have already created an experimental IE add-on to help current versions of IE get in on the native web video fun.

Microsoft’s add-on is far from ideal, but if you’ve been frustrated by Firefox’s lack of H.264 support, it does offer a partial solution. Hopefully, in the long run, browsers will standardize around WebM, which seems to enjoy the most widespread support (Apple’s Safari is current only browser that hasn’t pledged WebM support), but if that doesn’t happen solutions like this one may become even more common.

See Also:

• Developer Gives Internet Explorer the Gift of HTML5 Video
• SublimeVideo Hopes to Simplify HTML5 Web Video
• More Cool HTML5/JavaScript Video Players
• Why Flash Isn’t Going Anywhere, iPad Be Damned

View full post on Webmonkey

Microsoft has posted an update to version 12.2.8 for Office 2008 for Mac that improves stability and includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your Mac’s memory with malicious code.

View full post on Macworld

Microsoft is rumored to be launching an Internet TV platform in a year’s time. Reuters says that a Microsoft pay-television subscription service would allow people to view content through multiple Microsoft devices, like the Xbox. Microsoft has already added live-streamed ESPN content to its Xbox Live 2010 update. It would compete with AppleTV and Google TV.

Those hoping for a Microsoft TV reveal during Microsoft’s CES 2011 keynote might have to wait, says PC Magazine. It won’t be out for a year.

In addition to a current agreement with Netflix, Microsoft operates its own built-in movie marketplace that sells downloads and offers streaming video rentals.

Microsoft has reportedly proposed creating a “virtual cable operator” delivered over the Internet for which users pay a monthly fee. Other options include using the Xbox to watch shows with enhanced interactivity or creating content silos and selling more individual channels directly such as an HBO or Showtime. It already has Walt Disney Co’s ESPN on the XBox Live online service.

Both Google TV settop box and the Boxee Box share nearly identical processors, says Engadget.

Boxee uses Intel’s CE4110 and Google TV uses the CE4150, each clocked at 1.2GHz.

According to Wikipedia, the Top 5 Cable operators in the United States are:

• Comcast Corporation 23,891,000
• Time Warner Cable, Inc. 13,048,000
• Cox Communications, Inc. 5,316,100
• Charter Communications, Inc. 4,929,900
• Cablevision Systems Corporation 3,093,000

The Top 5 Ad-Supported Cable Networks (Primetime) are:

• USA 3,571,000
• TNT 2,435,000
• Fox News 2,157,000
• Nick at Nite 1,780,000
• TBS 1,592,000

Wikipedia has a list of cable and satellite networks broadcasting or receivable in the United States, organized by genre.

Doug Sylvester, chief strategy office of Avail-TVN, says cable lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 700,000 subscribers last quarter, but about 600,000 of them went to DBS or IPTV.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Google TV Verdict: Underwhelming, Naked Boxee Box , Sony’s GoogleTV and Internet TV Boxes Compared

View full post on dailywireless.org

Microsoft announced that it has hired CloudeMade and OpenStreetMap (OSM) founder Steve Coast as “Principal Architect for Bing Mobile. OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world.

“As Principal Architect for Bing Mobile, Steve will help develop better mapping experiences,” said Microsoft, “and lead efforts to engage with OpenStreetMap and other open source and open data projects.”

Microsoft will provide access to Bing’s orthorectified aerial imagery, and develop new tools to better enable contributions to OSM.

Coast says OSM continues to be independent as it always will be.

Mapquest has also embraced OpenStreetMap in big way, donating money and developing a parallel set of sites on top of OSM data in the US and Europe.

OpenStreetMap (wiki) creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.

OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Maps are created using data from portable GPS devices, aerial photography, other free sources or simply from local knowledge.

OpenStreetMap was inspired by sites such as Wikipedia. Images and the vector dataset are available for download under a Creative Commons ShareAlike licence.

Portland is the home of Linux creator Linus Torvalds, wiki inventor Ward Cunningham, mobile development shops like Small Society (which built iPhone apps for Obama, Starbucks, ZipCar and others), Urban Airship (an iPhone push infrastructure), and our own Android guru, Don Park.

Open source resource mapping projects like Oregon Explorer (www.oregonexplorer.info) and Willamette Basin Explorer (willametteexplorer.info) can make databases, created by government silos, available to everyone using the expertise of Oregon State’s Open Source Lab. OpenOceanMap (ohloh.net) is an ambitious project to break the ties of traditional geo-spatial data collection and develop a truly cross platform, Open Source, and transportable decision support tool. Their Gulf Project demo shows the utility of combining open source data bases.

Related Dailywireless stories include; Bike Sharing Gets an App, Mobile App Award Winners, Mapping the Haitian Disaster, Atlanta OpenStreetMap Mapathon, Google Dumping Tele Atlas Maps?, Google Earth Gets “Live” Overlay, Open Source: Moving Up, Ocean Observatory Gets Funded, Mt. Wilson Threatened by Fire, HyperLocal: There’s an App for That

View full post on dailywireless.org

Microsoft explained why it has not patched older versions of its Office for Mac, but would not disclose a release schedule for doing so.

View full post on Macworld

Internet Explorer 9 Beta on the Windows 7 desktop

We’re still months away from the official release of Internet Explorer 9 — it’s likely due some time during the first half of 2011 — but Microsoft continues to roll new features and additional web standards support into its next-gen browser.

The company put out a sixth pre-release “platform preview” of IE9 Thursday. It includes support for CSS3’s 2D transforms. There are also improvements to hardware acceleration, font rendering, and the browser’s JavaScript engine. You can read about these enhancements in depth on the official IE Blog.

Microsoft released the first beta of Internet Explorer 9 in September. But this new release is not a second beta, it’s the sixth platform preview. A bit confusing, sure. But beta releases are considered to be almost totally stable and are intended for a more general audience. Platform previews are on the bleeding edge, and may contain code that isn’t as thoroughly tested. So, this release is primarily aimed at developers.

IE9 Beta is doing spectacularly well, however — Microsoft says its beta release has been downloaded ten million times since its release six weeks ago. It has also been receiving kudos for its expanded support of web standards like HTML5, CSS 3 and WOFF.

Here’s a video showing off the new stuff in IE9 platform preview 6:

If you watch the video and read the post on the IE Blog, you’ll notice a lot of emphasis on “full hardware acceleration” in IE9, and how other browsers like Chrome and Firefox can’t perform as well as IE9 because they only offer “partial” hardware acceleration. In fact, all browsers have access to the same Windows APIs that enable off-loading work to the PC’s graphics processor when needed to speed up 2D and 3D animation rendering. This has been an issue of some debate over the past two months, with Microsoft and Mozilla going toe-to-toe over the issue.

If you want to test the new IE9 platform preview 6, it’s available for Windows 7 and Vista only. Microsoft also released some new tests at the ietestdrive site — run all your browsers through them.

See also:

• Internet Explorer 9 Beta Drops. It’s Lean, Fast and Modern
• Leaked Screenshot Shows a Cleaner, Simpler IE9
• A Guide to Hardware Acceleration in Modern Browsers

View full post on Webmonkey

Top Microsoft executive resigns
Ray Ozzie, chief software architect of Microsoft and proponent of cloud computing, resigns unexpectedly.

Read more on BBC News

Ever since Internet Explorer beat Netscape and turned into the web industry’s least favourite boat anchor, Microsoft has been struggling to turn the tide.

IE7 was little more than a statement that it planned to become a contender again, and IE8 was a decent overhaul, but one whose success came firmly from being a Microsoft release rather than because of any intrinsic improvements over its rival Firefox.

With IE9, everything’s changing. For starters, XP isn’t supported – unless you’re on at least Vista, you can’t use it.

The once heavy, intrusive browser has been stripped down, now focusing on the web content you’re looking at rather than trying to impress you with gimmicky features, heavy interfaces or many of the other IE hallmarks we’ve seen over the last five years.

In short, IE9 is now Google Chrome. It looks like Chrome, it smells like Chrome and, while it doesn’t work as well as Chrome, it’s still in beta.

Notable visual issues right now are the blank gap where the title should be, which niggles the eye every time it catches it, and the way the address bar forces your tabs into a much smaller area, greatly reducing how many you can comfortably use.

Subtle changes

Many of the new features are ones we’ve seen before, such as being able to rip tabs out of a window at will, or more subtle notifications when IE wants to check that you’re okay with a page or alert you to something.

There are some new ones though, including the ability to add bookmarks to your Taskbar and run them like applications, and Aero Peek support for the tabs you have open in your browser – at the time of writing, Chrome only displays the active browser window.

It feels like Microsoft is putting its ego aside and realising that it’s the web pages that matter. This is how the whole industry is going at the moment, and it’s good to see it not trying to fight it. After all, when you’re the dominant player, you don’t have to.

It’s unlikely that IE9 will give you a real reason to switch back, but it should be an excellent update if you use it by choice.

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• TechRadar Reviews Guarantee
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Microsoft Unveils New Windows Phones in Bid to End Share Losses
Microsoft Corp. unveiled nine new phones with its Windows operating system after an overhaul aimed at reversing share losses to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android software.

Read more on BusinessWeek

Microsoft bets big on new phone software
After years of declining sales of phones based on Windows Mobile software, Microsoft is starting with a fresh slate: a completely new operating system for phones.

Read more on San Jose Mercury News