Apparently, NDA doesn’t mean what it used to mean. Office 15 has been showing up in several places, along with screenshots and a lot of information. It looks nice, and a return to simple times. Some compare it with as an Apple-esc style of UI. There are a few things in there that bug me, but not enough to make a stink about it. Very minor things.

Microsoft’s next-generation Office suite recently reached the Technical Preview stage, allowing third parties to test Microsoft’s pre-beta code. The software giant released early copies of Office 15 to a number of businesses, partners and OEMs in January ahead of a public beta this summer. Thanks to a source with access to the Technical Preview, we’ve been able to get a closer look at Microsoft’s plans for its next Office suite.

This is a case of “You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. Either Microsoft includes Windows Defender security suite with Windows to help make Windows a more secure operating system, or they don’t and get complaints that Windows is an insecure OS. But, if they go the secure route, many security vendors will be crying foul that Microsoft is trying to push their products instead of a third party security application.

Some advice: if you want others to buy your product, perhaps you should try making a quality product that goes above and beyond what is already included within the base product. There are a lot of aftermarket products available for vehicles, yet you don’t see Ford getting nailed for including a stock muffler on a Focus. If they think they can build a better product, go for it. If not, try building aftermarket accessories for a different product. It is Microsoft’s operating system, they should not be forced to “dumb it down” so that other programmers can make things for it. It just doesn’t make sense, really. Competition? I don’t see them creating their own OS, or creating high quality security products for Linux or OSX (don’t say they are superior in security – if Microsoft makes it more secure, they get sued for anti-competitive practice. The circle of life in Microsoft.). If Microsoft can make a more secure OS, let them do it. If the other security vendors can’t adapt to it, they lose. Anti-competitive lawsuits shouldn’t inhibit a product so to cater to them.

So, to be clear: Microsoft cannot make a better product so that others can come in and make up that slack to make it a better product? Hmmm… Kinda stifles innovation, doesn’t it?

Elaborating, he cited section 47 of Singapore’s Competition Act that prohibits any conduct which is an abuse of a dominant position in any market in the country. A three-part test is then applied to determine if the law has been infringed. These include determining the relevant market, whether the company has a dominant position in the relevant market, and whether it has abused that dominant position, he stated.

If this  Fujitsu roadmap (translated to English) is correct, Windows 8 is headed for a quarter 4 launch date. This pretty much coincides with our thoughts and what has been rumored for some time now. I’m glad to see that Windows 8 tablets are a big focus with this launch, from Fujitsu and other companies.

Image courtesy of Notebook Italia

This is really cool. A new way to interact with Windows Media Center: Kinect for Media Center. While I won’t be using this, as I already have a Kinect for the Xbox 360 and having an additional one on the wall for the HTPC would seem a little overboard and redundant, it is a great new way to utilize your new Kinect for Windows. There still needs to be a lot more applications for the Windows version of the Kinect to make it a successful accessory to your PC. It’s a good start, though!

Kinect for Media Center is an application that interacts with my Media Center Remote Command Listener to control a Media Center computer using Hand Gestures and Voice Commands, utilizing the Kinect for Windows hardware.  The Hand Gestures and Voice Commands control the Media Center interface, as well as any add-ins running inside Media Center.  This includes popular add-ins such as Netflix, MyMovies, Media Browser, and Heatwave.

This is an amazing story. I’m hoping that it’s a local kid that knows the player instead of a random guy on the other side of the country getting this information. A kid playing Call of Duty on Xbox Live was told via the voice chat that he was going to hack him and send the SWAT team to his home. That is exactly what he did. There are a lot of trash talkers online, and you have to be careful with what you say and do, but I don’t think anyone could have expected this.

Just remember to never give out your real name, address or other identifiable information over the Xbox Live network. If you know someone enough online, use email or forums to discuss private things, but still be cautious with the details. You never know who could be on the other side. Be safe out there!

Captain Kevin Deaver with Lewisville Police said they started calling the family out because there were no signs of shooting.  “At one point they did come out of the residence but then went back in the residence, which did cause us some alarm,” he said.

Microsoft employees are some talented people. It’s no surprise that they are easily hired by other companies and Microsoft competitors. But, the results of where they do decide to go may be surprising. Apple, Cisco and Dell are on there, and Google takes the lead. Facebook comes in at #11, but still a large number of employees end up heading to the social networks employed ranks.

We did a search on LinkedIn for Microsoft, using "past company" as a filter. From there we tracked down where all the former Microsoft employees are landing.

Someone has been using a fake Twitter account to play with people, even telling them that HP TouchPad would be getting a free copy of Windows 8 WOA as part of a partnership with HP. Of course, the account is fake, and there isn’t a Windows 8 WOA upgrade for the TouchPad. Microsoft has taken notice and the account was renamed to @FakeSinofsky from the previous @StevenSinofsky.

The Twitter user states up front, "Oh, I’m not ‘the’ Steven Sinofsky by the way. He’s got a little project to focus on for now." However, he has been spending the weekend answering questions from people as if he were the real Sinofsky. He’s been claiming that that HP TouchPad owners will be getting a Windows 8 upgrade and also saying that Microsoft want’s to license MC Hammer’s "Can’t Touch This" as the official theme song for the Windows 8 launch.

WOA, or Windows on ARM, has been a bit camera shy and very little details have been released. Finally, Steven Sinofsky has written a long winded article on what to expect from WOA, and how they are implementing and designing for the ARM architecture. There is even a phone device running Windows 8 – although it isn’t a product or an upcoming product, just a bunch of geeks playing with ARM on an ARM device. It sounds like the geeks are finally taking the reigns of Windows again, instead of the bean counters.

There is a lot of information at the Building Windows site, a video and information on Windows 8.

At the same time, while this post is exclusively on our work on WOA, we have had a deeper level of collaboration with Intel and AMD on the full breadth of PC offerings than in any past release. Windows 8 innovations on powerful and richly capable x86/64 processors, and work on new low-power processors such as those that Intel demonstrated at CES, require an equally strong commitment, even larger engineering investment, robust new designs, and improved architecture for Windows across these platforms. While discussing our engineering for ARM processors, it is important to keep in mind that in addition to all of the new work for the ARM platform we have done, much of the work discussed in this post applies directly to the x86/64 platform and Windows 8 as well. We could not be more excited or supportive of the new products from Intel and AMD that will be part of Windows 8—across a full spectrum of PC form factors including tablet, notebook, Ultrabook™, all-in-one, desktop, and more that all take advantage of the new capabilities of Windows 8 while Windows 8 takes advantage of new features in hardware.

When Microsoft said they were going to release Windows 8 Consumer Preview in late February, they meant it. During the leap year day of the 29th, Microsoft is releasing the new beta of Windows 8 as part of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

According to some, Media Center will not be included, however Microsoft has tweeted that it will be included within Windows 8 (still unknown if it will be in Consumer Preview).

India is the latest country that is closing access to some websites. India has asked (yea, I’m sure they asked nicely, too) Google to remove content from their India domains that were called “objectionable” by a New Delhi court. Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo have taken the position that they don’t have control over the content found objectionable. Which is pretty much correct.

My thing is this: if you want to stop content on the internet, run your own ISP’s or your own backbone in your country and use your own firewalls. You still won’t have any control over the content, but at least you can block it if you so choose without having to go after some company that doesn’t control the content either…

India’s Information Technology Act of 2008 grants the government permission to require portals to block sites and force companies to designate a point of contact for receiving those requests.