The next version of the Kinect for Windows will be available late May, according to Microsoft. Several new features were announced, from Kinect Studio, a new seated or 10 joint skeletal system. Still available at $250, it is a bit rich for my blood unless an onslaught of Kinect for Windows software is forthcoming. Also, later this year a $149 academic version is going to be released.

Eisler also promised four new languages for speech recognition – French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. On that front, Kinect for Windows will also get new language packs that take into account how a language is spoken in different regions – like American vs. British English or France vs. Canadian French.

Microsoft China has made the prediction that the Windows Phone 7 will overtake the mighty iPhone in the Chinese market. While the iPhone only has 12% of the market share in China, Microsoft’s phone is only at 7.5. Cheap phones, advertising campaigns and more will attempt to take over the iPhone, and remove some of the huge 70% market share from Android. Can they do it? Are they being overly optimistic… Again?

“The Windows Phone ramp-up in China won’t really begin until the second quarter, so the numbers are still low,” Wong said. “From next year the ramp-up will be more rapid.”

By 2016, Windows Phone is forecast to have a 20 percent share in China, ahead of Apple’s 16 percent and trailing Google’s 60 percent, Wong said.

Apple users usually say they dislike Microsoft because they are the “Evil Corporation” and they love Apple because they do good. Well, Microsoft has made it on the list of the most ethical companies – but Apple did not. Microsoft hasn’t been the evil corporation, and the time when it was cool to hate Microsoft is over. Do you think Microsoft deserves the designation or Apple should get some recognition for their “efforts” in ethics?

The World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business "ethically" and translate those words into action. WME honorees not only promote ethical business standards and practices internally, they exceed legal compliance minimums and shape future industry standards by introducing best practices today.

Bloomberg’s sources have verified what we’ve known all along: Windows 8 should RTM in October of this year. We’ve been saying that for a while, and it seems to follow the same time frame as Windows 7 did. I’m not sure who their sources are, but hopefully they are a bit closer to Microsoft than just those that follow Microsoft and their OS schedule.

The timing would let Microsoft target Christmas shoppers with the new software, which works with touch-screen devices as well as laptops and desktop PCs. The Redmond, Washington-based company, which hasn’t announced timing for the Windows 8 release, aims to take back sales lost to the iPad and reinvigorate the sluggish PC market. Apple (AAPL) released the third version of the iPad this month, creating an even bigger challenge for Microsoft.

Would you buy a Windows 8 Metro UI style e-reader? I would, if the price was right. It would have to be very competitive to make it a must-buy. As a strict e-reader, it has to do it right. It has to be very easy to find books, buy them, transfer and read them. It should be as simple as possible. Metro UI can be simple, but it can also be way too much for a simple e-reader. I wouldn’t pay any more for a Windows powered e-reader than a Nook or a Kindle. Tablets are completely different – e-readers would be a black and white e-ink powered device. I’m just not sure they can pull it off. Microsoft seems very stiff on keeping the Windows price high and not budging. This could be their losing point on the tablet and e-reader market.

I think a lot of us have been in this boat: Internet Explorer sucks. For those of you that haven’t tried it in a while, it might be time to check it out again. I don’t use it exclusively, but I use it a lot. It runs a lot better than it used to, doesn’t crash as often as Firefox, less memory footprint than Firefox. But, this psychologist doesn’t like his IE problem, but doesn’t care for the guys style? With a haircut like that, glasses and the dorky shirt, I’m sure he would be using Safari on a Macbook Air. Ouch.

According to Microsoft, they are not going to be announcing or releasing the newest Xbox, sometimes referred to as Xbox Next, 720, etc.. It isn’t a huge surprise to many, as the Xbox 360’s sales are still seeing record high numbers. Hopefully, they are still in the works on finalizing the hardware spec’s, so when it finally does see the light of day, we aren’t stuck on an i5 and AMD 6000 series GPU in the days of 9000 series and the CPU past Ivy Bridge.

“While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon,” Microsoft’s Corporate Communications boss Frank Shaw told AllThingsD. “For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360.”

I’ve been seeing a 90/10 split between those who absolutely hate the new MetroUI on Windows 8 to those that either don’t mind it or that love it. Within Microsoft’s own forums, there are so many people in there that are having some absolutely horrible to say about being forced to use the new UI. While I don’t hate it, I don’t like it on a mouse/keyboard desktop. I absolutely love using it on touchscreen computer, though.

Although I don’t mind it, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that use PC’s as tools and aren’t PC enthusiasts. How do they fare? Check out the link to Chris Pirillo’s Dad using Windows 8.

Metro and the Desktop are essentially two different operating systems incompletely bolted together. Sure, techies can figure out how to navigate between the two interfaces, but other people will have a hard time. If you need any evidence of that, you only need to look at a video that Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome made of his father trying to use Windows 8. His father accidentally sends himself to the Desktop and tries to get back to Metro, and is thoroughly confused. When he finds out that Microsoft puts out Windows 8, he asks his son: "They trying to drive me to the Mac?"

Microsoft has released a new Fix It website available in beta form. Dubbed “Fix It Pro”, it is available in 18 languages and covers many various Microsoft products. Now, rather than a simple fix it, it allows you to analyze the problem (read only) and find solutions for those problems. It’s pretty nice and polished from what I’ve seen so far. I’m going to be looking into it in more depth and follow up with a more detailed post and some more personal experiences.

Technet Link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh855979.aspx

Fix It Pro website: https://wc.ficp.support.microsoft.com/Dashboards/Main/Settings

This is where you’ll start to realize the power of Microsoft diagnostics. The system begins to analyze specific files and targeted settings to identify known causes of Windows performance issues. Traditionally, a technician would do this manually by examining Windows system files, log files and registry settings. Fix it Center Pro can do this automatically and securely with the backing of the vast expertise of Microsoft to find known issues and return specific solutions to you.

A critical Windows bug can make your machine extremely vulnerable to attacks. It requires no user interaction to become infected with the malicious code. So, if you have any machines, servers, etc. using Remote Desktop, apply this patch ASAP.

"This type of vulnerability is where no user intervention or user action is required and an attacker can just send some specially crafted packets or requests, and because of which he or she can take complete control of the target machine," Amol Sarwate, director of Qualys’ vulnerability research lab, said in an interview. While RPD is not enabled by default, he said the number of machines that have it turned on is a "big concern" because it is so widely used in large organizations and business settings.