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Continue reading Microsoft Touch Mouse to take center stage at UIST Student Innovation Contest
Microsoft Touch Mouse to take center stage at UIST Student Innovation Contest originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
A senior executive leaving Microsoft may not always be the best of signs for the company and / or the exec, but it appears that Charlie Kindel’s just-announced departure is an amicable one for all involved. Kindel, as you may be aware, has been with Microsoft for 21 years, and most recently served as general manager for the Windows Phone Developer Ecosystem following earlier terms leading up the Windows Home Server and eHome divisions. So why pack up and leave all of a sudden? It seems Kindel has decided it was an opportune time to launch his own startup, which he’s keeping suitably mysterious at the moment (something to do with “sports, advertising, mobile, social-networking, and, of course, the cloud,” apparently). He has decidedly more to say about Windows Phone, however, which he calls flat-out “the BEST product Microsoft has ever built” (emphasis his), and one that he won’t stop using after he leaves the company. Hit the links below for Kindel’s own message announcing his departure, plus an interview with GeekWire.
Windows Phone GM Charlie Kindel leaves Microsoft to launch startup originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BlackBerry Colt may be RIM’s first QNX smartphone, will lack BES support out-of-box? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s a well-known fact that China’s Great Firewall isn’t particularly friendly with certain foreign online services, and sadly, it appears that we may now have a new victim joining the likes of Facebook, Twitter and, sometimes, Android Market. According to Windows Phone Sauce blogger Kane Gao, many Windows Phone 7 users in China have had limited access to the Marketplace over the last few days — they can’t download any app, but they can still browse content and receive update notifications.
While Microsoft’s service has yet to go live in China, Chinese users could still purchase apps by changing all of their profile location settings to the US. Alas, this trick is of no use now, though it’s unlikely that Microsoft’s the culprit here — it wouldn’t make sense to block genuine US users who are visiting China. Fortunately, Kane had no problem getting to the Marketplace via a US VPN, which is a big tell-tale sign showing that the Great Firewall has decided to barricade WP7’s very own app market. The reason? We’ll never know, and there’s no telling on whether this is a permanent ban, either. Nokia, being a big player in the country, sure hopes not.
[Thanks, JagsLive and Rahul]
China loses partial access to Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, Great Firewall to be blamed? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Skype 5.5 uses VP8 for video chats, keeps the WebM love aflame originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This article was written on May 19, 2008 by CyberNet.
Naturally Windows XP users have been wanting to upgrade to the latest and greatest Service Pack 3, but it seems as though some users are getting an unexpected surprise. If you have a desktop by HP/Compaq with an AMD processor you may find that your computer shows a blue screen of death (BSoD) when starting up. And to top it all off it won’t stop rebooting.
The problem is that HP ships both AMD and Intel desktop computers with the same operating system image. AMD and Intel processors use different drivers for power management: Intel uses intelppm.sys and AMD uses amdk8.sys. Up until XP SP3 this hasn’t been a problem, but for whatever reason after installing the Service Pack all hell breaks loose on any AMD desktop machine that has the Intel power management driver running. Upon booting up the computer you’ll receive this error message:
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer...
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xFC5CCAF3, 0xFC90F8C0, 0xFC90F5C0
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
After the error message is briefly shown the computer will restart. This cycle continues until you turn off the computer, and you’ll end up having to bootup into Safe Mode to temporarily get around the issue.
How do you correct the problem? HP has posted a workaround which primarily consists of disabling the Intel power management driver. Here’s a quick overview on what you have to do:
If you’re about to install XP SP3 on your HP computer (with the OEM operating system) then you might want to be proactive and follow these steps. It can save you a lot of headaches down the road. 
It’s unfortunate that you have to go through all of this to get XP SP3 successfully installed, and I’m left wondering who’s to blame for this. Is it Microsoft’s fault for changing something that causes the error, or is it HP who was apparently too lazy to create separate OS images for AMD and Intel based machines?
Thanks for the tip Omar!
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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Still not sure exactly what happened at Google this week? It’s like someone accidentally delivered espresso for the decaf pots. Meanwhile, over in Redmond, Microsoft’s legal team discovered how to use Twitter, but not any of the complimentary services that allow you to put a single coherent thought into an extended tweet. If you haven’t been following […]
Mere numbers aren’t enough to describe cash prizes for Microsoft, it seems. The firm’s inaugural Bluehat security competition’s introduction video opted for a clearer term: “mad loot, lots of it.” The big M hopes the hefty first prize of $200,000 will inspire the creation of the next generation of defensive computer security technology. The most innovative “novel runtime mitigation technology designed to prevent the exploitation of memory safety vulnerabilities” (phew!) will take home the aforesaid mad loot, while second and third places will receive $50,000 and an MSDN Universal subscription, respectively. The winner won’t be announced until Blackhat 2012, of course, and applicants have until April to submit their prototypes and technical descriptions. Hit the break for the official announcement video, complete with CG backgrounds and prize euphemisms.
Continue reading Microsoft offers ‘mad loot’ Bluehat prize to entice security developers (video)
Microsoft offers ‘mad loot’ Bluehat prize to entice security developers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple may still be staying out of the fray, but it looks like we now have a full-on back and forth between Google and Microsoft, following the former’s blog post yesterday that alleged a “hostile, organized campaign” against Android on the part of Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and others. The latest word comes once again from Google’s SVP and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, who has updated his original post with a response to what he calls Microsoft’s “false gotcha.” As you’ll recall from late yesterday, Microsoft brought up the fact that it had offered Google the opportunity to bid jointly with it on the Novell patents, and that Google turned it down. According to Drummond, however, such a joint acquisition would have “eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners,” and that it “didn’t fall for it.” He further goes on to note that the Justice Department’s eventual intervention in the acquisition — which required the winning group to provide a license to the open source community — only backed up Google’s case, and reaffirmed its original point that its “competitors are waging a patent war on Android and working together to keep us from getting patents that would help balance the scales.” Still no response from Microsoft on that, but we’d recommend staying tuned.
Update: Well, once again, Frank Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft, has taken to Twitter to tell Redmond’s side of the story. In several tweets he reiterates that Google rebuffed Microsoft’s offer to tag team the patent-bidding process and claims that El Goog wanted Novell’s IP all to itself — so that it could sue others instead of using the portfolio to reduce patent-liability for all. We don’t know if that was Google’s true intention, but we do enjoy seeing these two tech titans duke it out in a public forum. Keep it up, guys.
Google addresses Microsoft’s ‘patent attack’ response, says it didn’t fall for its offer (update: Microsoft responds, again) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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