Google’s Moto Mobility deal may have had Microsoft roots, comes with $2.5 billion break-up fee

Is Microsoft preparing to fill in Google’s old mobile boots? It could very well be, now that the search king has firmly committed to the hardware side of the mobile business. According to a report on GigaOM, MS was one of many potential suitors circling Motorola’s treasure trove of patents, effectively forcing El Goog to swoop in for the $12.5 billion kill. Moto’s portfolio of 17,000 patents and 7,500 patent applications would have significantly strengthened Redmond’s attack on the Android platform, but it appears the loss might actually benefit MS in other unintended ways. Despite the cheery, public well-wishing from handset makers, insider rumblings indicate a possible mass OEM defection to Windows Phone 7 could shortly be afoot, paving the way for a fierce, three-way mobile OS fight. For its part, Google doesn’t seem too worried about the competition, considering the deal’s hefty $2.5 billion break-up fee — a percentage three times that of the AT&T / T-Mobile merger penalty — a confident financial sign it intends to win this wireless race.

Google’s Moto Mobility deal may have had Microsoft roots, comes with $2.5 billion break-up fee originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox 360 to go forever matte as glossy is discontinued, fingerprints look for a new home

Say it ain’t so! Within the next few weeks Microsoft will be phasing out its 250GB Xbox 360’s glossy finish in favor of the murdered-out matte currently found on its 4GB models. Major Nelson recently took to his blog announcing the news amid apparent speculation that the pricier variant would actually be offered in both flavors. If you’re a fan of shiny things — and a lover of fingerprints — Major says you’ll still have time to pick one up as stock is shuffled, and also noted there’ll probably be glossy limited editions in the future. Rest in peace dear glossy friend, our microfiber cloths won’t know what to do with them themselves.

Continue reading Xbox 360 to go forever matte as glossy is discontinued, fingerprints look for a new home

Xbox 360 to go forever matte as glossy is discontinued, fingerprints look for a new home originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone Mango RTM leaks into the wild, offers tropical sweets for the daring

For those who’ve longed for Twitter integration and multitasking capabilities on your Windows Phone, the folks at xda-developers have a weekend project you’re bound to flip over: the final version of Mango has leaked, and it’s available for download today. Internally, it’s known as build 7720, and it requires the post-NoDo update dubbed 7392. Alternately, users of Mango beta versions 7661 and 7712 may hop on board, too. If you’ve got a couple hours to spare, a full list of instructions — along with the operating system itself — is included in the source. So far, the software has been confirmed to work on the HD7, Mozart, Trophy, Focus, Arrive, Venue Pro and Optimus 7. As always, proceed at your own risk, and best wishes for your tropical getaway.

[Thanks, Leonidas]

Windows Phone Mango RTM leaks into the wild, offers tropical sweets for the daring originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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9000 People Switch to a Mac per day?

This article was written on March 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

GetamaccampaginAccording to TUAW.com, they’re saying that the latest numbers suggest that there are around 9,000 new people per day that switch to a Mac. The numbers come from Tom Yager over at InfoWorld who based his calculations upon Steve Jobs’ claim that half of Macs are sold to first-time buyers.

Yager is also conducting an experiment with a lifelong Windows user. He’s set someone up with a MacBook and a copy of Paralells so that she can experiment with the Mac operating system, but still have access to Windows. He’s trying to see if in the end, she’ll make the switch.

While Apple is growing, 9,000 seems a bit high, but also doesn’t take into consideration all of the people who don’t use Apple exclusively. I know several people who use a Mac for work, and stick with their PC at home.

If it’s true, perhaps the Get a Mac campaign is doing more than giving people a few laughs?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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First Leopard was delayed, now iPhone too?

This article was written on April 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

IphoneimageA few days ago, Apple made the big announcement that their Leopard operating system will be delayed until at least October due to pulling engineers from the project to go work on the iPhone.

This hasn’t been confirmed as of yet, but rumors are starting to pop-up saying that the iPhone could possibly be delayed as well from its scheduled June (11th?) launch.

An insider from the manufacturing company in Taiwan is saying that the design is not “robust enough” and that all of the software functions are causing the battery-life to be compromised.

A delay would be absolutely necessary if this is the case, because there’s really nothing worse than a phone with poor battery life. Especially an iPhone with a hefty price tag of $500.

Yet another reason I’m not jumping on this bandwagon yet!

Source: Tuaw.com

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Microsoft patents new type of mobile slider, puts keyboards and screens on equal footing

Patents are the currency of the realm these days, and companies accrue them however they can — whether filing for their own or buying someone else’s. Microsoft’s no stranger to the patent game, and it’s added one more piece to its IP stockpile in the form of a “moveable housing of a mobile communications device.” A broad title, to be sure, but the patent essentially covers sliders where the keyboard ends up flush with the screen after it’s moved. In existing designs, the sliding display gets in the way of pressing the top row of keys, and squishing the grid’s size or fattening up the phone are the only ways to make space for fingers to press them. This new design frees phalanges and keys from such constraints, and adds a little something to the phone’s aesthetics as well. Sounds great Microsoft, now put this patent in the capable hands of Nokia’s hardware engineers and get to work making a sleek new WP7 slider, stat!

Microsoft patents new type of mobile slider, puts keyboards and screens on equal footing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Silverlight Demos Shine at MIX 07

This article was written on April 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

NetflixsilverlightThere is all kinds of Silverlight news going around right now because of Microsoft’s 3–day MIX Conference. It started with the announcement with Microsoft giving away 4GB of hosting space for developers to store their media, and then came one of the much awaited demonstrations…

When Silverlight was originally announced Microsoft made sure to mention some of the big companies that they had already partnered with. They obviously wanted to show that they could provide a great user and developer experience  that would compete with Adobe’s media player offering. Microsoft was able to get Netflix on board to develop a solution for movie subscribers to stream movies to their PC using Silverlight, which meant that the entire experience was all contained within the browser.

In just 3–weeks time (as stated in the video below) Netflix was able to put together a service to let subscribers instantly stream movies at HD-quality along with DVD-like navigation:

There are also some demos available right now that you can try out yourself. Here are a few that Microsoft has listed on the Silverlight Homepage:

  • Fox Movie trailers – I have to admit that I would love to watch all of my trailers on an interface like this, and at that quality. I also like how it is close to watching a DVD since it has the “chapter” navigation.
  • Dynamic ads – uh oh, there could be a new breed of “shoot the monkey” on the horizon!
  • Future Microsoft Homepage – This is actually pretty cool even though the only functional thing on the site is the navigation box on the right side. The first thing I noticed is that it sports a live search feature that displays matching results as you type. If you click on any of the navigation categories you’ll be presented with the results in a customizable view (one of the options looks like the Flip-3D in Vista). You’ll also notice that the background is blurred out when this window comes up.
    Microsoft Homepage
  • MSDN homepage – Nothing overly exciting here…just a popup media player.

Silverlight can be installed by going to this page and downloading the 1.4MB setup file. I was able to have it installed in under 30 seconds, so the process is pretty painless.

Source: Webware

Thanks to Oliver Daniel for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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The IBM PC turns 30, we hurt our hands giving it birthday punches

IBM PC turns 30
Thirty years ago today IBM officially ushered in what many consider to be the modern computing era with the 5150. What ultimately became known simply as the IBM PC was the first machine to run a Microsoft operating system (the recently acquired PC-DOS) on an Intel processor (the 4.77MHz 8088) and inspired countless clones. The bare-bones model, which cost $1,565, was cheap enough to become a serious commercial success, and spawned an entire cottage industry of machines that touted their IBM-PC compatibility. We won’t spend too much time recounting the story of how IBM’s decision to build a computer with off the shelf components and commercially available software forged a standard whose descent survives to this day in the form of Wintel. But, if you’re feeling a little nostalgic, you can read the original PR from August 12, 1981 just after the break.

Continue reading The IBM PC turns 30, we hurt our hands giving it birthday punches

The IBM PC turns 30, we hurt our hands giving it birthday punches originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Modern PC Turns 30

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01_ibm_5150


The revolutionary IBM 5150 landed 30 years ago today. It wasn’t the first device of its kind; Xerox PARC already had the Alto “home computer,” for example. But the success of IBM personal computers, particularly the 5150, was what would ultimately transform people’s opinions of computers and spur their adoption.

It would be difficult to overstate the role of the 5150. The PC grew so important and so influential in the years following its arrival that Time chose silicon over carbon in 1983 when it named the computer ”Machine of the Year”.

Today, we celebrate the IBM 5150 and nine other major milestones that helped the personal computer achieve its invaluable, and ubiquitous, place in society.

1981: The IBM 5150 Is Born

IBM launched the 5150 PC on Aug. 12, 1981.

It wasn’t much by today’s standards, or even yesterday’s. The 5150 featured a 4.77 MHz 8-to-16 bit Intel 8088 processor. It was less powerful than other processors available from Intel and Motorola, but those were thought to be “too powerful” for a PC. IBM also gave the 5150 a full 64 kilobytes of RAM — expandable to whopping 256 kB — one or two floppy drives (your choice) and a monochromatic display.

The 5150 was developed in less than a year by a team of 12 led by Don Estridge. The project was given the codename “Project Chess” — which we mention only because it sounds so cool — and built using off-the-shelf components.

Depending on how you configured your 5150, you’d shell out anywhere from $1,565 to $6,000 for one. That comes to $4,000 to $15,000 in today’s dollars. The success of the 5150 made the IBM PC the industry standard, and before long a whole bunch of “IBM compatibles” and clones jumped into the burgeoning PC market.

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Microsoft Surface-controlled robots to boldly go where rescuers have gone before (video)

Ready to get hands-on in the danger zone — from afar? That’s precisely what an enterprising team of University of Massachusetts Lowell researchers are working to achieve with a little Redmond-supplied assistance. The Robotics Lab project, dubbed the Dynamically Resizing Ergonomic and Multi-touch (DREAM) Controller, makes use of Microsoft’s Surface and Robotics Developer Studio to deploy and coordinate gesture-controlled search-and-rescue bots for potentially hazardous emergency response situations. Developed by Prof. Holly Yanco and Mark Micire, the tech’s Natural User Interface maps a virtual joystick to a user’s fingertips, delegating movement control to one hand and vision to the other — much like an Xbox controller. The project’s been under development for some time, having already aided rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina, and with future refinements, could sufficiently lower the element of risk for first responders. Head past the break for a video demonstration of this life-saving research.

Continue reading Microsoft Surface-controlled robots to boldly go where rescuers have gone before (video)

Microsoft Surface-controlled robots to boldly go where rescuers have gone before (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Microsoft Research Connections Blog  |  sourceUML Robotics Lab  | Email this | Comments