Hasta La Gadget!

Yes, Windows of the virtual kind instead of the ones that you wind up and down in your vehicle. From the desktop, the operating system war has moved on to portable devices such as smartphones and tablets, and into the living room with Apple TV, plans of Android TV, as well as other set-top boxes, now we have another dimension to think about – the vehicle. Most of the time, the driver is supposed to concentrate on the road ahead, but it seems that smart operating systems are slowly but surely making their way into this niche market. At BUILD 2014, a next-gen Windows car concept was demonstrated during a panel called “Windows and the Internet of Things”.

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Microsoft Windows Comes To The Car Now original content from Ubergizmo.

Another year is about to come to an end, and this would more often than not also mean that companies all over the world have more or less made plans for various road shows and conferences to happen in the year ahead. Software giant Microsoft is not exempt either, and they are currently working on delivering Microsoft BUILD 2014, hoping that in this event, developers will be able to “go deep” into Windows. The 2013 edition of Microsoft BUILD was held in June earlier this year over at San Francisco, and apparently the location has proved to have its fair share of pros that Microsoft decided to hold the 2014 BUILD conference there again.

We do know that Microsoft BUILD 2014 will happen from April 2nd to April 4th, 2014, where the venue will be the same as that of 2013’s – that is, at the Moscone Center which is located in downtown San Francisco and is a place that has seen its fair share of historic Apple announcements, too. Registration for Microsoft BUILD 2014 is set to kick off on January 14th at noon Eastern time (9 am Pacific), giving you more than enough time to figure out whether you would be able to attend it or not. [Microsoft BUILD]

Microsoft BUILD 2014 Confirmed original content from Ubergizmo.

Yesterday was the day Microsoft made Windows 8.1 available as a public download; today’s the day we ask “what’s next?” Here at the company’s annual Build developer conference, we sat down with Ted Dworkin, the man who oversees the Windows Store, to do a deeper dive on the store’s latest redesign. In particular, we were curious about that new Bing-powered recommendation engine, and how it might become smarter over time. What ensued was a Pandora’s box of a brainstorming session. Naturally, Dworkin wouldn’t make any promises about what we’ll see in future updates, but he did offer some compelling ideas about how Microsoft could take people’s usage patterns into account when recommending apps. For instance, while Windows already knows which applications you’ve downloaded, a future version of the store might also be aware of which apps you use most frequently, which ones you’ve uninstalled, which ones you’ve shared, which ones you’ve pinned, which ones you’ve unpinned, et cetera. On a privacy note, the recommendation engine is already optional, so there’s no reason why you couldn’t disable this kind of data collection too.

For starters, this an interesting idea for the developers attending Build this week — there are definitely people out there who download apps because they’re testing them (or reviewing them) and not because they plan on using them every day. Even more broadly, though, who among us hasn’t gone on a downloading spree, just to see what they liked? With usage patterns taken into account, you might get more useful picks, ones that ignore that random Twitter client or Angry Birds game you installed. Again, Dworkin wouldn’t say for sure if Microsoft plans on implementing any of this, but our vote would be “yes” if it leads to more recommendations we’d actually use.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Today during Microsoft’s 2013 edition of Build, Rhapsody announced that it’s releasing a version of its music app designed for the Windows 8 operating system. As you might expect, the Win8 variant will bring many of the same features found on its iOS and Android counterparts, including the ability for subscribers to create playlists and stream / download songs from Rhapsody’s ample library of tunes. There will be some tidbits tailored specifically for Redmond’s OS, however, such as a Snap Mode for simple multitasking and an option that allows tracks to be pinned to the Metro-style home screen. The company told us the application will hit the Windows store shortly, so we’ll be sure to update this post as soon as we have a link to the download.

Update: Rhapsody’s Windows 8 app is now up for grabs via the Windows store, linked down below for your convenience.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: Windows store

Microsoft wants developers to make Bing a central part of their apps, and it’s powering that with a new developer platform unveiled today at Build. The Bing kit will let programmers tap the search engine’s wealth of knowledge, providing direct information and translations when they’re relevant. It should also grant access to natural interfaces, such as gestures, as well as real-world map data. Microsoft showed the platform at work in both Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8, so it’s clear that developers who want Bing’s resources won’t be locked into any one device type.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft

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