Dec 16

Christmas lights hack puts your IM contacts on the wall above your desk (video)

Posted in: hack, light, live, Microsoft, mod, Today's Chili, video
As you well know, if it exists it can be hacked. And what better way to ring in the holidays than by taking a string of GE Color Effects G-35 lights and — thanks to some hand-crafted drivers and a Microsoft .NET Micro Framework embedded controller — turning it into a IM notifier? Of course, these aren’t any old Christmas lights: between the ability to change colors and the preset light shows, these guys boast a feature set that Clark Griswold would die for. And that’s where a Microsoft employee named Andrej Kyselica comes in: using the Microsoft Lync 2010 Office Communications Server, our man has rigged a system that allows him to assign each of his instant messenger contacts to a particular bulb, which changes color according to each contact’s status (for instance, green indicates that someone’s available, white means away, and purple means out of the office). Pretty sweet, eh? Check out the video after the break for a closer look.

Continue reading Christmas lights hack puts your IM contacts on the wall above your desk (video)

Christmas lights hack puts your IM contacts on the wall above your desk (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 16

Dell ships at least one Venue Pro, the saga continues

Posted in: Microsoft, shipping, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

The observant among you will have noticed that we’re a week past December 9th, yet Venue Pros are still conspicuously absent from their pre-orderers’ hands. Dell’s ever-changing shipping date was last bumped back to early January, though the company itself said it was hopeful that some units will ship out this week. And guess what? At least one did. Our tipster placed his order for the 8GB Venue Pro on December 2nd, and according to FedEx’s online tracking service, his shipment has been picked up from El Paso, Texas, and is currently en route to him. What say you, brave Windows Phone buyers, has your Venue Pro broken out of the warehouses ahead of its (delayed) release?

[Thanks, John]

Dell ships at least one Venue Pro, the saga continues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 16

Bing 2.0 brings better Facebook integration and the impressive Streetside to iPhone (video)

Posted in: app, AppStore, Google, ios, itunes, maps, Microsoft, search, software update, SoftwareUpdate, Today's Chili, update, video

Microsoft just released — or should we say, Apple just approved — version 2.0 of the Bing search app for iOS devices. In addition to several other new features including integrated Facebook Likes on search results (really!?) and in-app checkins to Facebook and Foursquare, Bing now comes packing Streetside, something that first blew us away as Street Slide when it was still in the labs at Microsoft Research. Unlike Google’s Streetview that requires a lot of forward- and back-clicking and turning in order to get a feel for a location, Streetslide provides a more comprehensive view of the shops and businesses in an area by letting you strafe down the sidewalk while zooming in and out of the buildings located on each side of the street. We took it for a brief spin (literally) and came away impressed. You won’t find Streetside implemented for all locations yet (for example, San Francisco’s Make-out Room was found on Streetside but the Slanted Door restaurant wasn’t) but they do seem to have large swaths of major cities covered based on our brief testing of Chicago, Seattle, New York, and San Francisco. Sorry, nothing yet in London and Amsterdam but maybe you’ll have better success searching your own neighborhoods. See the full list of what’s new after the break in addition to a Streetside demo from Bing’s architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas — unfortunately, we’re not seeing the impressive Panaroma feature he mentions in this release.

Update: We’ve been told that Facebook Likes, like Panaroma, like totally didn’t make it into the app release. It’s a web search results feature only for the time being.

Continue reading Bing 2.0 brings better Facebook integration and the impressive Streetside to iPhone (video)

Bing 2.0 brings better Facebook integration and the impressive Streetside to iPhone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 15

New Live Installer, Live Writer, & Photo Gallery

Posted in: Email, Freeware, Microsoft, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

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

Windows Live Installer

It looks like Microsoft is pulling a Google and offering their most popular apps in a unified package. Well, it’s not exactly like the Google Pack because Microsoft is only including their own homegrown programs, whereas Google also includes some third-party software (such as Norton and Skype).

The site you’ll need to visit for the unified installer is http://get.live.com/wl/all. It is currently available (for me at least) with several new releases of their applications, such as Live Messenger 8.5, Live Writer, and Live Photo Gallery. Here’s everything that’s included:

  • Windows Live Mail (email)
  • NEW Windows Live Photo Gallery (photo management) – This is similar to the built-in Vista Photo Gallery, but it has some new enhancements. The great thing is that it is available on versions of Windows prior to Vista as well.
  • NEW Windows Live Writer (desktop blog publisher) – I haven’t been able to tell much of what’s new in this release, but the build number is 12.0.1277.816 and it’s labeled as “Version 2008″ instead of “1.0″. The only thing I’ve seen new so far is a built-in “Insert Video” option and the ability to justify text. I’ll make a separate post regarding this app when I get more information on the changes. UPDATE: Here’s a list of what’s new
  • Windows Live OneCare Family Safety (parental controls)
  • NEW Windows Live Messenger 8.5 (instant messenger)
  • Windows Live Toolbar (for your browser)

And here’s a video of how the entire process works:

Source: Vista Blog

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Dec 15

Windows Phone 7 said to be getting major ‘Mango’ update in August or September

Posted in: mango, Microsoft, Today's Chili, update, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7
We’d already heard that Windows Phone 7 is set to get an update of some sort early next year — possibly coinciding with Mobile World Congress in February — but ZD Net’s Mary Jo Foley is now reporting that an even bigger update could be following in August or September. According to her sources, the update is codenamed “Mango,” and it will effectively amount to Windows Phone 7.5, which she says might even be the actual name when it’s released. That update will apparently bring Silverlight runtime and HTML5 support to the OS, along with Far Eastern language support, and some other unspecified features and functionality. It will also presumably be the most significant update until Windows Phone 8, which Foley says is codenamed “Apollo,” and is on track for a release in late 2012.

[Thanks, John]

Windows Phone 7 said to be getting major ‘Mango’ update in August or September originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 15

IRS employee uses Outlook rules to intercept boss’s e-mails, convicted of wiretapping

Posted in: Email, Microsoft, Today's Chili

IRS employee uses Outlook rules to intercept boss's e-mails, convicted of wiretapping
Here’s an interesting question for you: if you set up a rule in Microsoft Outlook to forward messages from one account to another, and you do it without the knowledge of the owner of the account you’re forwarding from, are you intercepting or merely copying mail? It may seem like a moot point, but for David Szymuszkiewicz, a former IRS worker, it’s an important distinction. David was afraid of being fired after his license was suspended for drunk driving (he needed to drive to the homes of delinquent taxpayers), so he secretly set up this rule on his boss’s machine to see what the world was saying about him. The rule was discovered and, wouldn’t you know it, he was in trouble. The only question now: whether to charge him under the Wiretap Act for intercepting messages or the Stored Communications Act for merely copying of them.

So, what was your answer to the question above? You might be tempted to say he was simply making a copy, and indeed that was Szymuszkiewicz’s argument, but any Exchange admin will tell you that Outlook rules are executed on the server, not at the client, meaning those e-mails were indeed being intercepted. Szymuszkiewicz was convicted of wiretapping but seems to have avoided a harsh sentence, with 18 months probation being handed down. A light punishment for wiretapping, but a heavy one for diddling menus in Outlook.

IRS employee uses Outlook rules to intercept boss’s e-mails, convicted of wiretapping originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 15

Kinect meets Swarovski crystals, gaudiness ensues (video)

Posted in: expensive, kinect, Microsoft, Today's Chili, video, xbox 360, Xbox360

Hey, you know that Kinect thing that Microsoft recently launched and hasn’t been heard of since? Well, it’s such a boring and useless creation that somebody had to try and spruce it up. Enter DS Styles, with a bag of 5,000 Swarovski crystals and the courage to use them. The result of that coupling has been the (quite literally) unmissable concoction you see above — a Kinect that will blind you first, then record your clumsy reaction for posterity second. And it only costs $632, what a steal!

Continue reading Kinect meets Swarovski crystals, gaudiness ensues (video)

Kinect meets Swarovski crystals, gaudiness ensues (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 15

HTC Hub update helps save us from our Windows Phone 7 phones

Posted in: HTC, Microsoft, Today's Chili, Windows Mobile, windows phone 7, windows phone 7 series, WindowsMobile, WindowsPhone7, WindowsPhone7Series, Wp7

Remember the Windows Phone 7 ads, the ones that promised to “save us from our phones” by giving us more “glance and go” information? For the most part, these phones haven’t delivered on that promise due to the relative dearth of apps taking advantage of Microsoft’s live tile concept. That changes a bit today thanks to an update to the HTC Hub app that ships with every Windows Phone 7 device manufactured by HTC. Now, instead of a generic double-wide icon, the HTC Hub presents you with the current weather condition and temperature and the forecasted highs and lows. As such, you’ll never have to click through and be subjected to HTC’s overwrought animations that feel so out of place on Microsoft’s more demure user interface. More please.

HTC Hub update helps save us from our Windows Phone 7 phones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 15

Telus to bundle free Xbox 360 with every WP7 activation or renewal for a limited time, says leak

Posted in: canada, console, deal, free, leak, Microsoft, rumor, sale, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7, xbox, xbox 360, Xbox360

Buy this phone, won’t you please buy this phone? We’ve no idea why Telus has to try so hard to convince Canadian buyers to grab themselves a Windows Phone 7 handset, but the carrier’s expected to sweeten the deal dramatically over the next few days by bundling a freebie Xbox 360 with every WP7 device activation or renewal. The offer starts today, according to this leaked memo, and will last through to the end of the week, December 19th. Telus carries the HTC 7 Surround and LG Optimus 7, neither of which would seem to have caught fire quite the way Microsoft would have wanted. Ah well, if you’re going to sell your wireless soul for a whole three years, you might as well do it for a phone-plus-console combo.

[Thanks, Sean]

Telus to bundle free Xbox 360 with every WP7 activation or renewal for a limited time, says leak originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 14

Arc Touch Mouse now on sale for $60 at all Microsoft retail stores

Posted in: Microsoft, mouse, on sale, OnSale, peripheral, Peripherals, Today's Chili

It may not be available at your favorite e-tailer quite yet, but Microsoft’s Arc Touch Mouse is indeed on sale at the company’s seven retail stores, each of which got a shipment of the flexible critters this morning. (How do we know? We just called every one.) What’s more, they’ll only cost you $60 apiece, a full portrait of Alexander Hamilton less than the original batch of preorders, so if you’re looking for a thoroughly unique rodent partner that bows to your will, now might be the best chance to nab one.

[Thanks, Elliot B.]

Arc Touch Mouse now on sale for $60 at all Microsoft retail stores originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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