Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’

Entelligence: Will Surface ever surface?

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on March 19th, 2010

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I'd paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote for the CE market by saying that any sufficiently advanced new product needs to look like it just came off the Starship Enterprise. I'd say Microsoft Surface was a product that met my definition as well as Clarke's when it launched a few years back -- and it should have changed computing quite a bit. Sadly, I haven't spoken to the Surface team in a long time and it looks like it may never go anywhere in the end.

The Surface concept was great. It was a Windows PC inside a table with a 30" touchscreen on top, and cameras that could sense what's happening on screen. The result is you could use a Surface device just by touching the screen with your finger -- but unlike other large touch screens at the time, Surface was multitouch, so you could use all your fingers at the same time. More importantly, multiple users could engage with each other. It was a PC but didn't look or run like a PC, which was genius -- you'd never know it was running Windows, but there was no development learning curve. It was totally optimized for that big honking touch surface area, and applications that worked with it -- I'm sure it could run Office, but that's not something it's was ever likely to do. Surface was PC evolution happening in real time. It's really something you needed to see up close and in thirty seconds before the light bulb went on. Sadly, most people have never seen or worked with a Surface unit. Beyond a small retail rollout at AT&T stores in NY that seems to have ended, the last time I saw one was the Edelman PR offices, where it sat like a large coffee table and did pretty much nothing.

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Entelligence: Will Surface ever surface? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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column, columns, entelligence, microsoft, Microsoft Surface, MicrosoftSurface, Surface

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Microsoft confirms accuracy of old, pre-’reboot’ Windows Mobile 7 leaks

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on March 16th, 2010

Remember those old, allegedly leaked Windows Mobile 7 screen shots from way back in 2008? You know -- those ones that look absolutely nothing like the so-called Metro UI that Windows Phone 7 Series is actually using? Well, Microsoft's Albert Shum -- one of WP7S' chief designers who we had the pleasure of meeting back at MWC -- just confirmed the accuracy of those leaks in a session here at MIX10. Discussing the reboot of the WinMo 7 program that happened inside Microsoft about a year ago, Shum flashed a slide showing eight of those infamous shots featuring those crazy bottom-aligned battery and signal meters along with WinMo 6.x-ish ID oozing from every nook and cranny. Needless to say, a clean-slate approach was sorely needed, and that's exactly where Metro ended up coming into play -- but be honest: is there anyone out there that would've still preferred the old leak in a production device?

Microsoft confirms accuracy of old, pre-'reboot' Windows Mobile 7 leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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albert shum, AlbertShum, microsoft, mix, mix10, Windows phone, Windows phone 7, windows phone 7 series, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, WindowsPhone7Series, wp7s

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Windows Marketplace tweaked, installs to storage cards now possible (Android, take note)

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on February 23rd, 2010

Microsoft has released an updated version of its Marketplace for Mobile application for WinMo 6.0 and up recently that makes a few key changes -- nothing that's going to shake you to your very core the same way that Windows Phone 7 Series did last week, certainly, but there's some good stuff in here nonetheless. Most importantly, Marketplace will now allow for app installs straight to memory cards, a critical capability for devices that don't have gobs of storage built in (and something that Android tragically still lacks). We've also got deep links to app product pages, user-selectable regional stores, Russian support, and the list goes on, so it seems like a must-have upgrade for anyone on a 6.x device. Just don't break the bank going on a wild, Red Bull-fueled app buying rampage now, alright?

[Thanks, Stair]

Windows Marketplace tweaked, installs to storage cards now possible (Android, take note) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MobileTechWorld | source

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Marketplace, microsoft, windows marketplace, Windows Mobile, windows mobile 6 5, WindowsMarketplace, WindowsMobile, WindowsMobile6.5, winmo, winmo 6.5, winmo6.5, wm6.5

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Windows Mobile 6.5 to be redubbed Windows Phone Classic?

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on February 18th, 2010

What, you didn't think Microsoft would really keep up with the non-parallel syntax of "Windows Phone 7 Series" and "Windows Mobile 6.x," did you? We knew Windows Mobile 6.5.3 would continue its admittedly less chic existence, but now comes word via I Started Something that it'll be rebranded as Windows Phone Classic. The name change apparently won't take effect until the 7 Series devices start hitting consumer hands -- can't have a classic without something newer to take its place, right? No worries, Sense UI fans, it looks like you'll still have plenty of WinMo support, even if that portmanteau goes the way of the dinosaur.

Windows Mobile 6.5 to be redubbed Windows Phone Classic? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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microsoft, Mobile os, MobileOs, Windows Mobile, Windows phone, windows phone 7 series, windows phone classic, windows phone classic series, WindowsMobile, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7Series, WindowsPhoneClassic, WindowsPhoneClassicSeries

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Microsoft EMG Research Would Let Users Strong-Arm Gadgets Into Submission [Science]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 3rd, 2010

Mind control is one way to control tomorrow's gadgets. Here's another equally cool, equally complex way: Controllers that involve nothing but the electrical impulses taking place everyday in our muscle tissue.

The system, developed as part of a patent filed by Microsoft, uses a series of connectors attached to an armband. The armband leverages Electromyography (EMG). As you can see in the video, this creates a system that translates the electrical activity found in our muscles into instructions for a computer. Or a Guitar Hero air guitar.

The system in the video is shown as a forearm version, but further patent reading reveals a completely wearable network of sensors that would adorn a user's head, arms and legs.

So air guitar and auto-trunks are only the beginning, although we'd need to be extraordinarily aware of our gestures and arm movements should a system become more mainstream, don't you think? I'd hate to flip a guy off on the highway and have my driver's side door pop open. [Muscle Computer Interfaces via Engadget]

concepts, microsoft, mind control, Muscles, Patents, Research, Science, The Future, Videos

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Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 3rd, 2010

We've seen plenty of far-fetched EMG-based input methods, like the concentration-demanding, head-based NeuroSky controller, but Microsoft Research is asking for a patent that involves much simpler gestures -- and might actually make a bit of sense. As demonstrated in the video after the break, Microsoft's connecting EMG sensors to arm muscles and then detecting finger gestures based on the muscle movement picked up by those sensors. It does away for the need of a pesky camera (or Power Glove) to read complicated hand gestures, and can even sense modified versions of the gestures to be performed while your hands are full. Microsoft's developing a wireless EMG sensor module that could be placed all over the body, and while like all Microsoft Research projects this seems pretty far from market, there's a small, optimistic part of us that could see some of the benefits here for controlling mobile devices. And boy do we love controlling mobile devices.

Continue reading Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors

Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechFlash | source

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Control, controller, emg, gestures, microsoft, microsoft research, MicrosoftResearch, sensor

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Internet Explorer losing users as other browsers set share records

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 2nd, 2010

In the last quarter, Chrome, Safari and Opera all set new personal bests for browser market share with 4.63, 4.46 and 2.4 percent respectively. This period marks the first time Chrome has pipped Safari to third spot, while their collective prosperity comes at the expense of IE, which continues to hemorrhage users at a rate of 0.92 percentage points a month. Microsoft's 62.7 percent slice might still look mighty, but projections from Net Applications suggest it could shrink to below 50 percent by May of this year. Unless something magical happens. You'll probably also want to know that Net Applications monitors incoming traffic to over 40,000 websites and generates a sample size of about 160 million unique visitors each month -- making the veracity of its claims pretty robust. One hidden sign of our collective laziness: 21 percent of all users last quarter were still fulfilling their browsing needs with IE 6. For shame.

Internet Explorer losing users as other browsers set share records originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Computer World | source

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browser, browser wars, Browsers, BrowserWars, Chrome, data, Firefox, Google, google chrome, GoogleChrome, ie, Internet Explorer, InternetExplorer, microsoft, Mozilla, Numbers, opera, Safari, Software, Statistics, Stats

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Microsoft’s Lost Decade in Mobile [Decades]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 1st, 2010

10 years ago, you could buy the HP Jornada 548 with a color screen, which let you listen to MP3s, surf the web, check your email, and keep a calendar. It had a touchscreen. It ran Windows. It was awesome.

Today, you can buy a smartphone with a color screen, which lets you listen to MP3s, surf the web, check your email and keep a calendar. It has a touchscreen. It runs Windows. It does everything—everything—better than its ancestor did, in a much sexier hardware package. Plus it makes calls! It will cost you less than the $450 Jornada 548, though you'll probably have to sign a two-year cellphone contract. Amazingly, though, its software looks and feels almost exactly the same as its ten-year-old brother.

I don't just want to beat up on Microsoft here, because disregarding aesthetics and UX, Windows Mobile has evolved a lot since it was just a twinkle in Windows CE's eye. But not as much as the competitors around it, and not fast enough to stay relevant. So instead of looking back, let's look forward: Microsoft, Windows Mobile 7, whatever it is, is your chance to win us back. The mobile space moves faster than is did back at the turn of the millenium, back when you had some of the best mobile software on the market, but it also has a shorter memory. Show us what you've got; we're eager to see it.

Cellphones, decades, HP Jornada 548, microsoft, PDAs, Smartphones, Windows Mobile, Y2k10

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The Decade in Tech Stocks: Hope You Had GOOG and AAPL [Y2k10]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 31st, 2009

Turns out it was a tough decade for tech companies. First the bubble they helped create burst and took the rest of the economy down with them; now the credit markets have sunk them in return—with two notable exceptions.

I'll admit that this chart would be more readable if it had been a more competitive field. But isn't that kind of the point? While everyone else was mucking around trying to recover from the mistakes of the late nineties, two truly innovative companies—Apple and Google—distinguished themselves in spectacular fashion. Granted, Google didn't join the party until 2004 and benefits from a severely undervalued IPO, but even taking that into consideration, their current stock price of $622 is 20 times that of Microsoft. No matter what kind of dividend Ballmer hands out, that's an enormous—and telling—gap.

That's the big picture. But I'm curious as to what you guys see in the details, too. A stock can pop on a rumor and drop on a dime. What's behind some of the peaks and valleys we see here? [Chart via Google]