Hasta La Gadget!

In an interview with CBS, Bill Gates talks to Charlie Rose about his life, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and more interestingly Microsoft. He says that the way that Microsoft went about the mobile industry didn’t allow them to get the leadership they needed. He says that they should have entered the market earlier in order to get the lead on cell phones and that “it’s clearly a mistake”.

Bill Gates says he and CEO Steve Ballmer are “2 of the most self-critical people”. He says that “There were a lot of amazing things that Steve’s leadership got done with the company in the last year. Windows 8 is a key to the future, the Surface computer, Bing – people are seeing as a better search product, Xbox“. Gates says that due to the self-critical nature of both him and Ballmer, they feel like they could better.

Bill Gates also discusses sleep and that he needs at least 7 hours of sleep, or else his “IQ begins to drop”. He wishes that he could be like other people who can thrive off only 4 hours of sleep. He is a night person and he “gets very excited about something that’s going wrong or right”. He would sometimes stay up until 2:00 A.M., which would prove to be difficult if he had an appointment early in the morning.

Alongside the talks of Microsoft, Bill Gates says that he wants to introduce a new high school course that brings together Science and History. He is also working on innovations in cheap and clean energy. While they weren’t able to get the lead on the mobile market, it seems that Microsoft is doing well in catching-up in the industry. Their Windows 8 mobile devices are starting to get traction in the industry, and hopefully with the release of Windows Blue, they’ll be seen as a major competitor.

[via CBS]

Bill Gates discusses Microsoft and their mobile sector is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows 8 was a big step for Microsoft, and rumors have been swirling that its arrival is heralding more than just live-tile interfaces. A report from November indicated that Windows would move to a cheap, annual upgrade cycle called “Blue,” not unlike OS X. Now, job postings seem to confirm that yes, Blue exists, and under that name. More »

A couple of job listings posted February 15th on Microsoft’s site confirm that there will be a Windows Blue upgrade heading for both PCs and Windows Phone devices. There are jobs posted for both a Software Development Engineer in Test, as well as a Senior Development Lead. Both of the jobs offered hints at some things we can expect from the Windows Blue upgrade.

The job posting for the Software Development Engineer in Test stated that, “The Core Experience features are the centerpiece of the new Windows UI, representing most of what customers touch and see in the OS, including: the start screen; application lifecycle; windowing; and personalization. Windows Blue promises to build and improve upon these aspects of the OS, enhancing ease of use and the overall user experience on devices and PCs worldwide”. It looks like someone jumped the gun when they posted the job listing because the 3rd sentence has recently been rewritten to only say ‘Windows’ instead of ‘Windows Blue’.

The posting for the Senior Development Lead has a segment that says, “As a development lead you will hire and manage a team of top-notch developers, be personally involved in designing and coding features, and work closely with PM and Test counterparts across multiple orgs to help realize the vision of building high quality excel app for Windows Phone Blue.”, hinting at an upcoming Windows Phone Blue update for Windows Phone devices, as well as a revamped Excel app.

Windows Blue will be a refresh for Windows 8, improving upon aesthetics and user experience. It is going to start off a new campaign of affordable, yearly updates for Windows services. The rumored launch date for Windows Blue is sometime in late Q3. It will be available for Windows 8 PCs, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012, as well as a few Windows services such as Hotmail and SkyDrive.

[via ZDNet]

Microsoft job postings confirm more Windows Blue details is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I love the idea of the Surface: compelling hardware, striking form factor, and, in the case of the Pro, smart compromises to offer a good value. But the products fail to live up to their promise. They have first generation bugs. But maybe a low-priced Surface with a smaller screen could finally help bring the Surface promise to life. It just better run Windows Phone 8 and not Windows RT.

Yesterday at Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference on Wednesday, Microsoft CFO Peter Klein spoke to the Surface and Microsoft’s ability to scale to different form factors. As John Paczkowski lays out, Microsoft could build a Surface Mini.

Both Windows 8/RT and Windows Phone 8 could handle the task. With both options comes compromises, though.

“We can have the same core code base driving form factors from four inches all the way up to 27-inch ones and everything in between,” Klein said. “So I think we are well set up to respond to demand as we see it. We can deliver a versatile set of experiences across form factors, whether they’re four-inch, five-inch, seven-inch, 10-inch or 13-inch.”

Windows 8 requires beefy hardware but can run any Windows application. Windows RT has an extremely limited marketplace of apps and it doesn’t seem to be improving with time. The task seems best suited for Windows Phone 8 even though it’s far from a blockbuster hit yet.

Microsoft’s latest mobile OS is still struggling. It’s fighting for third place against BlackBerry. Android and iOS are simply out of reach. Consumers might not be buying the smartphones en mass, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fantastic user experience.

I love Windows Phone 8, but I wouldn’t use one as a daily driver. The user experience is beautiful. It’s slick, intuitive, and would scale nicely to a larger screen. It doesn’t require serious computing hardware, allowing for tablets with thin form factors and longer battery lives.

Microsoft might not be alone in developing a 7- to 8-inch tablet. Nokia has been said to be working one as well with its reveal coming as soon as next week at MWC.

Even with a beautiful hardware and wonderful OS, it’s pretty clear that a Windows Phone 8 tablet would struggle to gain traction. Even though WinPhone 8 is growing, the platform’s app ecosystem is pretty weak. Developers are not flooding the Store with apps. The platform is relatively unknown to most consumers. And another Microsoft-made tablet platform could be detrimental to the entire operation.

Microsoft is in a precarious situation. It can no longer rely on third parties like HP and Asus to advance its software. The company clearly feels its hardware needs to lead the charge. The first generation Surfaces are good, but not good enough. A smaller form factor model could help rejuvenation the brand once it goes stale in a few months.

Microsoft has released fixes and patches for a total of 57 known issues today. The updates will fix critical security holes and fix more than 12 vulnerabilities. The major fix is for Windows RT and Surface RT users who are experiencing issues with the App Store Downloading functionality. Automatic updates would start downloading updates and put the system in “Connected Standby” . Users were unable to get Windows Store applications.

Another fix is for the Wi-Fi connectivity and reliability of Surface. Language packs have been added to the updates as well. A few more updates include driver updates for windows volume up and down buttons. Small updates include a fix for the audio playback quality of Bluetooth devices and streaming videos to Xbox through the Windows Media Center. Internet Explorer (IE) also has been patched, with two fixes specially designed for all versions of Internet Explorer. IE should provide a safe(r) environment once the patches have been installed. Or if new vulnerabilities are found, then new fixes will be released.

The patches are available on Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services and Microsoft Update. Complete information regarding the patches is available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894199

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