Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft has reportedly made a significant change to its internal operations that won’t affect customers, but will affect employees. Microsoft has been using a controversial system for ranking its employees to encourage competition among workers. Microsoft used a stack-ranking system that it has now terminated. The ending of the employee ranking system is said to […]

Data centers are some of the most power-hungry pieces of infrastructure that exist today, but Microsoft has plans to make them a little greener—by powering its racks with built-in fuel cells.

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We have already heard whispers going around that since August, Microsoft has been testing out Windows Phone 8.1 internally, although information on such testing has been pretty much scant concerning the platform update itself. We already know that Windows desktops and tablets have already been on the receiving end of Windows 8.1 (aka Blue), but when it comes to the portable platform of Windows Phone 8, it has only seen the GDR3 update that has been geared in the direction of opening up new hardware setups rather than seeing the inclusion of additional software features.

Apart from that, the new leak also showed that there are multiple builds of the Windows Phone 8.1 software in testing, apart from it being internally tested as mentioned. This bit of evidence hails from the analytics information of the Facebook Pages Manager, where it depicted a minimum of eight different builds of Windows Phone 8.1 being tested. It remains unknown just who is using the FB Pages Manager exactly, or the kind of pages that are being managed at the moment. So far, it is expected for Windows Phone 8.1 to be released sometime in early 2014, where hope runs high for big software changes to be introduced to Windows Phone users, where among them include a Notification Center and Microsoft’s voice assistant that has been code-named Cortana.

Microsoft And Nokia Reportedly Testing Out Windows Phone 8.1 Internally original content from Ubergizmo.

In the past we’ve seen RatedRR on YouTube shoot at a bunch of gadgets, perform drop tests, and basically do all sorts of mindless destruction which we have to admit is pretty entertaining, albeit wasteful. Well it seems that they had a ton of Xbox 360 units leftover with the red ring of death, essentially rendering the console useless, so what did they do? Well they strapped C4 explosives to the console and recorded the entire proceedings in slow-motion, letting us enjoy the wonderful spectacle of seeing the previous-generation console go out in a blaze of glory, almost as if it were welcoming the new-generation with aplomb.

In fact the last explosion was done where the explosion formed the shape of an X, which is rather appropriate give that this is the Xbox after all! In any case we’ll try not to spoil the rest of the video for you, but if you’re into mindless destruction and wished you had his access to explosives to vent your frustration on your ruined Xbox 360, be sure to check it out in the video above.

Xbox 360 With Red Ring Of Death Gets Blown Up Using C4 original content from Ubergizmo.

In the latest round of Patch Tuesday software updates, Microsoft has rolled out updates for its new Surface 2 Windows RT 8.1 powered tablet. A lot of things have been improved through the update, including but not limited to the battery life. Last month Microsoft released a battery life improvement update for the Surface Pro 2 that brought a significant change, so it will be interesting to see just how much of a performance boost Surface 2 battery life gets. The updates also include camera, system performance and stability as well as all Type Cover and Touch Cover performance improvements.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers have been updated to boost wireless display performance. The update also improves audio, particularly when switching to speaker playback after disconnecting headset. Surface Pro 2 hasn’t been forgotten, Microsoft has rolled out minor updates for the tablet as well. An update to the LifeCam driver has been rolled out that increases TrueColor fidelity. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers have been updated to enhance wireless display performance as well as improve Wi-Fi stability and performance. These updates are automatically installed on the tablets through Windows Update, however users can manually install them by heading to the Settings app and going in the Change PC settings menu.

Microsoft Surface 2 Receives Updates To Improve Battery Life And More original content from Ubergizmo.