While the consumers chant I’m A PC, Microsoft has come out with a new commercial which looks like it is by the HR division and for their recruitment efforts, the commercial has several Microsoft employees talking about their work ethos and ends with each proudly claiming “I Am Microsoft”. The commercial showcases the diverse cultures working at Microsoft and how their individuality in a team makes Microsoft.
Jan
29
The good guys at WZOR.net have published screen shots of Windows 7 build 7700 which might be the SP1 and also screen shots of Office 2010 Escrow RTM build (14.0.4734.1000). An Escrow build in Microsoft circles means development has been frozen. Screen shots:
Jan
27
This year’s Tech Vista – Microsoft Research India’s annual event for students and the community was special to Microsoft India as it coincided with their 5th anniversary. The event is to provide a platform for students to interact with the industry representatives and take a look at what Microsoft Research has been doing. At this year’s event – Tech Vista 2010, Microsoft India launched a new portal for students.
Jan
25
Windows Live suite is due for a major overhaul and from what it seems, MIX 10 is where Windows Live Wave 4 will be unveiled or maybe as soon as next week. Nothing has been stated officially but enough information is available on the Internet to give us a comprehensive idea of the possible new features coming in the Live Wave 4 products. Initially, live.com redirected to bing.com, not anymore. On visiting live.com one is shown the following screen:
Jan
15
Looks like I’m spending quite a lot of time on the US Patent & Trademark Office website, but it’s totally fun (of course minus the really un-intuitive website design). According to a patent filed by Microsoft on the 22nd of September last year, the little known Quick Tabs feature in Internet Explorer is expected to get more functionality and better tab management options. Quick Tab as of now displays thumbnails of all tabs open and a close button for each tab. The patent images reveal that significant improvements will be made to the Quick Tabs interface. Some of the expected enhancements are:
Jan
14
Keeping rumors aside, let us talk about something that might actually come in the next iPhone software upgrade. According to a patent filed, Apple plans to introduce a feature that will allow users to put individual contact entries on the home screen. A possible use according to the patent cites that this icon on the home screen can be used to invoke contact specific applications.The patent filing states the following:
Jan
14
Using Office 2010 has been an entirely new adventure for me. While finding new features, I’ve found some handy ones that have been in older versions of Office but I missed them. Today, I came across two features in Office 2010 that are new to Office. Till Office 2007 one needed a 3rd party add-on to enable Read-Out-Loud functionality, something a lot of us have wondered as to why Office hasn’t had it despite Windows having Narrator. Anyway, with Office 2010, you have built-in Read-Out-Loud capability but for some reason Microsoft decided to hide it. Office 2010 is big on collaboration via the Internet and as such language plays an important role, for this Office 2010 has a Mini Translator that allows quick translation of highlighted text. Enable Read Out Loud & Mini translator:
Jan
10
Steve B at CES said that Mobile World Congress is where they’ll be talking about Windows Mobile 7 then there was the invite received by enthusiast Long Zheng, this might be one of the many announcements to be made at MWC 2010 regarding Microsoft’s push. Robbie Bach has confirmed that the Zune Marketplace which now provides content to the PC & the Xbox 360 will start feeding content to phones. In an interview he said:
Jan
7
According to a patent filed, Microsoft plans to offer administrators central control over mobile devices in a network. The patent is for A standardized mechanism of remote management of mobile devices. The patent states that mobile configuration information will be extracted from the phone and sent as xml to the server, the person (preferably an admin) at the server will then have control to change configuration of the device from his central console. The technology according to the patent is for mobile devices and will be making use of the RFID modules in the devices. The patent states the following:
Jan
1
How about making random finger gestures while jogging to change the track being played by your portable media player? Or opening your car by gripping the bags in your hand more tightly?! The crazy engineers at Microsoft Research have figured out a way! Prototype video & images are embedded below. Microsoft calls this muscle-computer interfaces (muCIs):
