Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft announced at Computex 2013 that small Windows 8 tablets will come with Office 2013 pre-installed for free. The suite includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

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Microsoft is introducing a new pilot project today called ”Chip In,” which sees the Windows-maker offering to help students crowdsource laptop purchases ahead of next school year. Students with a .edu email address can crowdfund laptop purchases of qualifying devices through the official Microsoft online store, and Microsoft will subsidize 10 percent of the purchase price itself, plus offer free copies of Office 365 University edition to the first 10,000 students to sign up for the program.

The Chip In promotion begins today and goes through September 1, so essentially spanning the entire summer for higher education students. The full list of eligible laptops includes 15 Windows PCs from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Microsoft. The Surface Pro and Surface RT are both included in the list, as are some marquee Windows 8 devices from third-party partners like the Lenovo Yoga and Asus Taichi. Microsoft’s 10 percent discount is automatically applied to the pricing of all those on the list, which you can see here.

While it’s intended for students, U.S.-based faculty and staff are also eligible to participate so long as they have a valid .edu address. To participate, choose a computer, create a profile page using your FB account and request that friends and family chip-in to help meet your funding goal. If you fulfill your goal, Microsoft sends out a promo code you can redeem to complete the purchase. There’s even a provision that allows you to put any amount earned above your goal (should a device go on sale or get a price cut) toward other devices and items in the Microsoft Store. If you fall short of your goal, but raise at least $499, you can still use those funds toward a device as well. If you don’t meet that amount, your contributors won’t be charged.

This goes above and beyond the usual back-to-school promotions and is actually a pretty good idea in terms of letting students leverage the good will of relatives and friends who might want to give them a graduation/off-to-college gift but can’t fork up enough for a new laptop all on their own. It might be slightly annoying seeing a lot of inbound requests from students begging for notebooks, but on balance it seems like a good idea, and a smart way for Microsoft to get more people on Windows 8.

Microsoft is announcing a new Halo game built for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 called Halo: Spartan Assault.

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Elecom is releasing USB link cable “UC-TV3BK”, which will make your life much easier when you transfer data between computers.

When support for Windows XP ends on April 2014, many people might be buying a new PC. Buying a new PC is always exciting but it will be a pain to transfer all the existing data in the current PC to the new one.

Connect a PC with XP and a PC with 7/8 with “UC-TV3BK” and install the dedicated utility program that is built-in to “UC-TV3BK”. Now you are ready for data transfer, so simply drag folders or files saved in XP and drop them in 7/8.

Also, you can control both PCs connected to each other with the mouse and keyboard of one of the PCs. That will help smoother data transfer process.

Price: ¥5,313 (including tax)
OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8
Length of cable: About 1.2m
Interface: USB2.0/1.1

This week the folks at Microsoft have let it be known that Windows 8.1 hasn’t yet spilled all of its details, coming in with Miracast wireless display support standard. This is an implementation of the standard technology that Google introduced with Android 4.2, also working with Miracast, here bringing the technology to every PC able to upgrade to Windows 8.1 – with implementation of the software as made real by the manufacturer.

To make Miracast wireless display technology work, one needs a Miracst-certified source device and a Miracast-certified display device. Microsoft’s announcement of Miracast integration makes it clear that they intend Windows 8.1 PCs to work at source devices. What’s not clear at the moment is if manufacturers will seek the approval of the Wi-fi alliance to make their machines Miracast-certified display devices as well.

The Wi-fi alliance maintains an official list of both sources and displays that are Miracast-certified, including devices such as the HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S 4 on the source side of things and a variety of smart TVs and specialized Miracast dongles on the receiving end. We spoke about this list back when Miracast was introduced with Android 4.2, warning that it certainly wasn’t an extensive enough cross-section of devices that it was safe to head out and pick up just any old “wireless display capable” machine on the market.

Since then, this list has expanded significantly. With both Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 supporting the ability to work with Miracast, manufacturers are sure to adopt at a much quicker rate than we’ve seen thus far.

Microsoft’s implementation of the technology includes notes that pairing future Windows 8.1 devices with Miracast will be as easy as connecting with Bluetooth or NFC – the end product still requires both devices to be on the same Wi-fi network, but the pairing should be a snap.

SOURCE: Microsoft

Windows 8.1 Miracast tap has Microsoft join the wireless display party is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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