Aug 19

Thrustmaster unveils Ferrari F458 racing wheel and TH8 RS shifter, dares you to get fast and furious

Posted in: controller, gaming, Microsoft, PC, ps3, Today's Chili

Is that regular ol’ Xbox 360 controller leaving you unfulfilled after a marathon session of Forza Motorsport 4? Don’t fret, Thrustmaster has announced the launch of its Ferrari 458 (F458) Italia Racing Wheel for Microsoft’s gaming console. The 11-inch wheel features a rubberized grip to stay comfy, built-in metal paddle shifters, a Manettino dial for mid-lap adjustments and progressive resistance to keep you on the straight and narrow. Not wanting to leave PS3 and PC racers in its dust, the company also revealed the TH8 RS gear shifter — which connects to the T500 RS or the outfit’s other PC wheel controllers via USB. This bad boy lets you release your inner Michael Schumacher with either H-pattern or sequential configurations plus 360-degree rotation adjustment to tailor the gearbox to your liking. Both the TH8 RS and the aforementioned F458 will be hitting your garage… er, game room in October for $180 and $90, respectively. Check out the full PR for the pair after the break, and make sure you fasten your seatbelt.

Continue reading Thrustmaster unveils Ferrari F458 racing wheel and TH8 RS shifter, dares you to get fast and furious

Thrustmaster unveils Ferrari F458 racing wheel and TH8 RS shifter, dares you to get fast and furious originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 19

Meet Patty, Microsoft’s Surface 2.0 stress test robot

Posted in: Microsoft, robot, Today's Chili

Locked behind a gated fence and unseen by the public until now, lives Patty, Microsoft’s Surface 2.0 stress test robot. Designed to see just how much Gates’ touchscreen can take, this lady bot uses 80 compressed air-driven probes, six motors and a robotic moving head to apply maximum stress to the display. It works as such: by giving Patty a command, engineers can move probes across the screen at 25 inches per second — mimicking the movement of fingers, hands and whatever else it might encounter IRL. With so much multitasking, it’s no wonder she comes with a giant red emergency stop button — just in case. See Patty do her thing by hitting the source link below.

Meet Patty, Microsoft’s Surface 2.0 stress test robot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Microsoft Surface Blog  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 18

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 App Store

Posted in: Microsoft, Software and Operating Systems, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 8

A preview of Windows 8 from a public demonstartion. (Photo courtesy Ars Technica)

A blog post on MSDN by Steven Sinofsky, President of Microsoft’s Windows Division, confirms there will be a Windows 8 app store.

In the post, Sinofsky lists the teams that are working on Windows 8, and right towards the top of the alphabetical list is “App Store.”

Based on a legitimate-looking roadmap that was leaked last summer, we suspected Microsoft would eventually launch its own Windows 8 app store. One of the slides in the roadmap pointed to competitor Apple’s success for providing a “high quality, uncomplicated” product, while another outlined plans to replicate the company’s successful app store model. Apple opened the doors of its own Mac App Store in January.

“When we started building Windows 8 we had a clear sense of the direction we were heading and so we built a team structure to support that direction,” Sinofsky says in the post. He also goes into detail about how the teams divide responsibility, are made up of different roles, and how they go through the engineering process to deliver their product.

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Aug 18

Microsoft patent application points to fast-booting streaming OS

Posted in: cloud, Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, patents, streaming, Today's Chili, Windows

While Microsoft is busy readying the much talked about Windows 8 for release, a new patent application has popped up that could reveal even bigger — or at least faster — things to come. According to the filing for “Fast Machine Booting Through Streaming Storage,” which was submitted in February of last year and released last week, Redmond is looking at creating a system that could stream an entire OS to just about anything with a screen. The proposed setup would enlist a series of storage devices, both remote and local, to act as a virtual hard disk, allowing anything from a set top box to a tablet to boot almost instantaneously. We don’t know about you, but we’ve already started a list of ways to spend the extra seconds.

[Thanks, Bogen]

Microsoft patent application points to fast-booting streaming OS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  sourceUSPTO  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 17

Editorial: Google, Microsoft and the incredible shifting mobile landscape

Posted in: Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Google, HTC, Microsoft, mobilepostcross, motorola, nokia, RIM, smartphone, Smartphones, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7

In two years, we’ll mark the thirtieth anniversary of the first commercially available cellphone — built by Motorola, incidentally. Given this week’s big news from Google, and other big events that we can only presume are yet to come, those two years may also prove to be some of the most interesting yet for the mobile industry.

One of the more telling things about Google’s acquisition announcement on Monday was the response from Motorola’s competitors (and Google’s partners). Immediately following the news, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC and LG all came out to praise Google’s commitment to “defending Android,” which presumably also means that they remain committed to using Android. What’s more, as Google itself has made explicitly clear recently, it’s not just defending Android as any company would defend its own product, but defending it against what it’s described as “hostile” and “organized” threat from Apple and Microsoft (and, to a lesser extent, Oracle).

That increasingly hostile footing and a further-bolstered Google (assuming the acquisition goes through) also now creates some clearer lines and an entirely new dynamic between the major players in the mobile industry. Google and Microsoft are now taking similar approaches by licensing out their operating system to others while also having a hand in hardware development (by proxy with Nokia in the case of Microsoft). Neither are about to go as completely independent as Apple has, of course, but they both seem to have decided that it’s no longer enough to just focus on software and leave manufacturers entirely to their own devices.

That leaves RIM and HP who, like Apple, are each trying to go it alone with their own hardware and mobile operating system — although HP is apparently open to the idea of licensing webOS if it has any takers (an option that seems to be getting less and less likely). The question now is will they succeed by staying out of the fray, or will they be forced to join it and choose sides?

Continue reading Editorial: Google, Microsoft and the incredible shifting mobile landscape

Editorial: Google, Microsoft and the incredible shifting mobile landscape originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 17

Nokia 800 and Acer M310 caught on Windows Phone dev’s stats, likely in testing

Posted in: leak, leaks, mango, Microsoft, mobile, mobilepostcross, nokia, rumor, rumors, statistics, stats, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

The fact that Nokia and Acer are busily preparing Windows Phones is no secret, but Sea Ray and W4 may not be the manufacturers’ only projects. Elbert Perez, a Windows Phone game developer with a keen eye for statistics, was looking through a list of the various devices that run his games, and a couple gems stood out — the Nokia 800 and Acer M310. The plot thickens when realizing that these names have never been seen before. Sadly, such a revelation prompts more questions than answers: are these completely new phones, or just the Sea Ray and W4 with new names? If testers are playing games on them, can we assume these are close to production? But don’t forget the lingering question that won’t ever be answered: are they winning the game?

Nokia 800 and Acer M310 caught on Windows Phone dev’s stats, likely in testing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 17

Microsoft Should Award Every Solitaire Winner Ever With This Sculpture

Posted in: Games, Microsoft, Today's Chili, top

Of course, Microsoft would be churning out more sculptures each day than new copies of Windows 7, but who wouldn’t want a physical trophy of their proudest-ever achievement? And if you’ve never seen this Solitaire waterfall before—shame on you. More »

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Aug 16

Microsoft closes the book on MS Reader app

Posted in: app, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, LCD, Microsoft, reader, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 8, Windows8

We’re wishing a heartfelt farewell to Microsoft Reader today, because the folks at Redmond have decided to pull the plug on their e-book application, more than a decade after it first launched. Pre-dating the rise of the e-ink medium, the forward-looking MS Reader was originally designed to display digitzed books on an LCD screen, using the company’s ClearType font display. Over the past few years, however, the app has slowly faded into obscurity, with the latest desktop version dated from 2007 and its last update rendering it compatible with Windows Mobile 6.1. The concept was clearly ahead of its time, but it ultimately fell behind what would become a swelling trend, ushered in by the Kindle, Nook and other e-reading hardware. No word yet on whether Microsoft plans to introduce a similar tool for Windows 8, though the timing of Reader’s demise certainly leaves ample room for speculation.

Microsoft closes the book on MS Reader app originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 16

Consumers Buying Windows Vista? They Sure Are!

Posted in: Microsoft, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on October 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

steve ballmer The New York Times got it right when they said, “It turns out someone does like Windows Vista, along with Office and the other stuff Microsoft sells.” Sure Windows Vista is getting bashed left and right, but people are buying it. In fact, consumers bought $1.1 billion dollars more in software than what analysts had originally projected. After Microsoft announced yesterday that their revenue for the first quarter (which ended September 30, 2007) was $13.76 billion, Microsoft shares went up 12 percent which added around $30 billion to its market value. Not a bad day in Microsoftland!

Their revenues of $13.76 billion was a 27% increase from the same quarter the previous year. What helped them with that giant swell was software like Vista and Office as well as the increase in sales of Xbox 360 consoles and the launch of Halo 3. Some of you may be thinking that the jump in revenue had more to do with an increase in the sales of Windows XP instead of Vista, but Kevin Johnson, president of the platform and Services Division said “Customer demand for Windows Vista this quarter continued to build with double-digit growth in multi-year agreements by businesses and with the vast majority of consumers purchasing premium editions.”

While software gave Microsoft a huge boost in revenue, their Internet sites lost pretty big. In all, they lost $264 million thanks in part to development of their Live line of services as well as their advertising business. This loss was a big increase compared to their loss of $102 million during the same quarter a year prior. They launched a lot of different online services this year though, and they’re just starting to get their advertising business off the ground (hopefully that acquisition of aQuantive will help) so the loss is somewhat understandable.

Losses in the Internet Sites division aside, the overall message here is that Microsoft had a huge quarter! Now that they’ve got aQuantive on board and an investment in Facebook, we’ll be keeping an eye out for how these investments turn into value for Microsoft. If Microsoft’s chief Steve Ballmer is correct, those investments will add huge value. He said that online advertising would grow to make up 25 percent of the company’s total revenue! Think it’s possible?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Aug 16

Microsoft SkyDrive Jumps to 25GB Free Online Storage

Posted in: Features, Microsoft, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on December 05, 2008 by CyberNet.

skydrive.png

Microsoft is trying hard to show people that they are serious about online storage, and I’d say they are doing a darn good job of it. They just updated their SkyDrive online file storage service with numerous new features, but more importantly they bumped up the free storage quota from a mere 5GB to 25GB. While the new limit sounds rather appetizing you should take into consideration that they do restrict individual file sizes to under 50MB. So no, you won’t be able to upload your video library.

Here are some of SkyDrive’s features (new features are highlighted in green):

  • Storage: Store up to 25 gigabytes (GB) of photos and files.
  • Organization: Arrange your files in top-level folders (A folder that appears in the Documents, Favorites, or Photos sections on the Windows Live SkyDrive home page. Also known as a root folder.) and subfolders (A folder that you create inside a top-level folder.) that you create.
  • Control: Choose permissions (A setting that lets you limit who can see and download files from your folders.) for each top-level folder that you create. Keep your photos, files, and favorites in personal folders (Only you can view or edit files in this top-level folder. You can use personal folders to store private files.) so only you can access them; in shared folders (Only you and people that you select can view photos and files in this top-level folder. For each person that you allow to access the top-level folder, you can assign the role of reader or editor.) so you can share them with your Windows Live network, your extended network(The people in your network on Windows Live—your Windows Live Messenger and profile contacts—plus the profile contacts of the people in your network.) , and people on your contact list (A list that contains the name and e-mail address of each of your contacts.) ; or in public folders (Anyone on the Internet can view photos and files in this top-level folder, but only you can edit the photos and files.) so that they can be viewed by anyone on the Internet.
  • Flexibility: Upload any photo or file up to 50 megabytes (MB) in size, and move, copy, delete, rename, and caption your photos and files after you upload them. Entire folders can be downloaded as a single ZIP file.
  • Display: Photos saved as the JPG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIF, and TIFF file types (A standard way of storing information on a computer by using the last three letters of a file name, known as the file extension, to indicate the file type. Different programs use different file extensions.) display with thumbnail (A miniature version of an image or electronic version of a page that is generally used to allow quick browsing through multiple images or pages.) images, and can be viewed by other users on SkyDrive or in an online slide show, if they have the right permissions to view them.
  • Sharing: Share links directly to your folders, files, and photos, or embed your photos and files in your blog (Short for weblog. An online journal. Each entry typically contains personal thoughts and web links, with the newest entries listed first.) or webpage. You can also share files with users who don’t have a Windows Live ID, and they won’t be required to create an account.

The only thing the service lacks is a way for people to bulk upload files and folders through a desktop application. Having to go to the site and upload items one-by-one can get rather frustrating, but I suspect that’s how they are getting away with offering such an enormous amount of free storage. Lifehacker did find a free tool that will let you do just this, but I’d still like to see something come from Microsoft.

You may not agree with me, but I believe SkyDrive could be on the verge of becoming a terrific social network for sharing files. People can upload files and photos that can then be shared with friends, family, and colleagues. I have to give credit where credit is due. I thought for sure Google would beat Microsoft to the punch in terms of online file storage, but they proved me wrong. Bravo!

Sign-up for Windows Live SkyDrive

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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