Windows 8 Rumors – Backup in the Cloud

By DustinPosted on

While some refer to off site, leased network storage as the cloud, I prefer to skip the buzzword. But, Windows 8 is rumored to have backup capabilities using Microsoft’s Azure platform.

I have said it earlier and I’m going to repeat myself here: Job postings are one of the only official sources of information regarding Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8. A new job posting was recently discovered that connects the Windows 8 Client Backup feature with Microsoft’s cloud based service Windows Azure.

Military Vets Can Win Kinect

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft is having a giveaway for vets returning from service to win a Kinect system with XBox 360. Entering is simple. Good luck to all you vets, and THANK YOU for your service and dedication to this Country. You are appreciated!

To celebrate the launch of our Elevate America Veterans initiative, which helps veterans to transition from military to civilian employment, we are launching a sweepstakes for veterans to win one of twelve Xbox 360 4GB consoles with Kinect.

The competition will run from November 8th through November 12th 2010 and the winners will be announced the first week in December.

It is only open to U.S. military veterans, and to enter you will need a Twitter account. Please review the official rules below before entering.

To enter:

  • Please read the official rules below
  • Follow @msftcitizenship on Twitter
  • To enter into the draw for one of the twelve Xbox 360 4GB consoles with Kinect tweet the following message:

Honor US veterans with a chance to win an Xbox 360 and Kinect. View official rules here: http://bit.ly/dArv8n @msftcitizenship

Google Search For Windows Phone 7

By DustinPosted on

Google has unleashed their Google Search upon the Microsoft phone. Bing is available on the iPhone and Android, so why not make Google available on the three major smartphones, as well? I like a good alternative, although Bing has been proving to be a worthy adversary for Google.

Searching with Google on your Windows Phone 7 device just got easier. The Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 provides quick and convenient access to a rich set of search results, allowing you to search the web, images, local, news, and more.

This initial release of the Google Search app includes several features that help you to search faster – suggestions appear automatically as you type, you can choose to repeat a query from your search history, and your current location is used to provide more relevant results.

Windows Phone 7 Released in USA

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft has officially launched and released their Windows Phone 7 in the United States with a new campaign: challenging consumers to Get a Grip. I’m going to go see if I can get a hands on with this phone today, take some pics, and see if it would work for me. If so, I’m probably looking at an upgrade as soon as Verizon can get off it’s high horse and start offering its consumers what they want and not drag it out for a year or two.

As Windows Phone 7 goes on sale in AT&T and T-Mobile USA stores across the United States, Microsoft Corp. has commissioned and released the findings of a recent Harris Interactive® survey showing the surprising ways mobile phones have become a part of the fabric of Americans’ lifestyles — a point illustrated by the fact that 55 percent of all phone owners surveyed age 18–35 have used their phone in a bathroom. To commemorate the U.S. launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is challenging consumers to get a grip on their mobile phone habits.

How Microsoft Goes After Pirates

By DustinPosted on

I’ve never been a supporter of piracy, although I am a big advocate for making better product that people would pay for. Microsoft spends millions of dollars every year to combat piracy of its products, and they have some hard core ways of doing it. Of course, software piracy isn’t just software a lot of the times. Remember that next time you buy a pirated copy of Windows from the street: You could be supporting the drug cartels and kidnappers.

The police reached the house undetected, barreled in and found rooms crammed with about 50 machines used to copy CDs and make counterfeit versions of software like Microsoft Office and Xbox video games. They arrested three men on the spot, who were later released while the authorities investigate the case. “The entire operation was very complicated and risky,” says a person close to the investigation, who demanded anonymity out of fear for his life.

The raid added to a body of evidence confirming La Familia’s expansion into counterfeit software as a low-risk, high-profit complement to drugs, bribery and kidnapping. The group even stamps the disks it produces with “FMM,” which stands for Familia Morelia Michoacana, right alongside the original brand of various software makers.

Helping People Not Good?

By DustinPosted on

Of course, Microsoft is the bad guy again. They started offering Microsoft Security Essentials as an optional update on Windows Updates ONLY if they didn’t have any antivirus software already installed. How this is a bad move for Microsoft, I’ll never know. But, you know how people are… It’s Microsoft, the evil corporation, and they are offering something to its users to help them out if they don’t have protection.

I’m disappointed but not surprised by this kind of sniping. There are many things that you could argue are optional add-ons to an operating system, but security is not one of them. Poor security has plagued Microsoft for a long time, and the buy-it-as-optional-equipment model is one of the causes. It’s as if the car alarm makers of the world wanted a law that new cars had to be sold without any sort of locks or security systems. It doesn’t make any sense.

Kinect News

By DustinPosted on

First, the crew at iFixit has, in true geek form, ripped apart their launch day Kinect. Some awesome shots on how this thing was put together. Second, the $2000 bounty for hacking the Kinect should be claimed by these folks, who have successfully hacked the Kinect system even though Microsoft has said it would be extremely difficult.

The video below shows that a hacker has taken control of the Kinect system, which is a $149 add-on for the Xbox 360 video game console. Kinect allows users to play motion-sensing games without any game controller. The effort was undertaken at the urging of New York-based Adafruit Industries, which offered a $2,000 bounty for an open-source hack. Phillip Torrone of Adafruit provided the video to the Gizmodo gadget blog.

Copy & Paste Coming to WP7

By DustinPosted on

Windows Phone 7’s critics have said that it’s lack of multitasking and copy/paste features made it inferior to the competition. IIRC, Apple and Android didn’t have those features on release (and actually took a while to implement). Well, Microsoft is releasing an update in Early 2011 that addresses these issues, and more.

Microsoft Director of Project Management for Microsoft Project, Arpan Shah, has incidentally revealed in his personal Microsoft blog that copy and paste for Windows Phone 7 “will be available as an update in a matter of weeks (early 2011)”. According to WPCentral the rest of the update is also expected to bring task manager/hub multi-tasking, turn-by-turn navigation, clipboard and SkyDrive support.