I’ve been testing this thing out for a while now, and it is very cool. Yea, it’s like Windows Phone and Windows 8, and it takes a little bit of getting used to because of the change, but once you get the hang of it, it is a lot easier and faster to get where you want. It also provides you with more information without having to go in and out of applications.

It makes the whole Xbox experience seamless and more polished. At times, it felt like different things were just pasted over the top of other things. Now, with the new Metro style interface, it seems like it is all one seamless application. Well done, Microsoft.

Beyond entertainment, you’ll find a number of features designed to make your Xbox experience more personal, social and effortless. The dashboard has an entirely new look and feel and a completely reimagined interface that makes your entertainment accessible through simple voice commands. Now, using voice search with Bing on Xbox, you can find and play the programming you want across multiple entertainment providers without having to search for a remote control. In the mood for ‘The Office?’ Just say “Xbox, Bing, ‘The Office,’” and Xbox will display all episodes available from various entertainment apps across the console.

I met Nate Oliver online quite a while ago through the Microsoft MVP site, and in the few years that I’ve known him, he was a very smart, down to earth, enthusiastic and kind person. I was sad to hear that Nate passed away recently. I did not get the chance to meet him personally, but his online persona was extremely friendly and helping. My condolences go out to his family and friends. You will be missed, Nate. A very sad day in the Microsoft community.

For fans of the old Microsoft Flight Simulator series, Flight is a new direction which brings the simulation that we like combined with the gaming aspects that gamers want. While this is a mixed bag, I’m not going to make judgment until I try it out. You can, too, by signing up for the closed beta for Flight. Remember, if you are accepted, it comes with a lot of rules:

By playing the Microsoft® Flight Beta, you acknowledge that everything related to this alpha is confidential and should be treated as confidential. Please keep in mind that features you see in this beta may change or be removed in the final version and those features should always remain confidential.

1. Do not take photos, videos, or audio recordings of the Beta software.

2. Do not post photos, videos, or audio recordings of the Beta software on any venue.

3. Do not describe any part of the alpha software on any venue except the official Flight Beta Connect website.

4. Do not allow others to play or watch you play the Beta software.

5. Do not leave the Beta software running unattended.

6. Do not leave the official Flight Beta Connect or Flight Beta website running unattended.

7. Do not threaten or abuse other participants in the beta software or on the  official Flight Beta Connect website.

8. Do not attempt to hack, modify, decompile, reverse engineer, or otherwise tamper with the beta software.

9. Do not attempt to hack or otherwise interrupt the official Flight Beta Connect website.

10. Do not attempt to copy or redistribute the Beta software.

11. Do not provide your download token to someone else. It is meant for you only.

12. ALL content related to this beta, including beta announcements and other e-mails, screenshots taken by yourself or other beta participants, Microsoft surveys related to Microsoft Flight, forum posts, bugs, the game itself, and any other content or communications related to the beta are confidential and not to be shared with any other person or venue outside of this beta.

13. You understand that you will be using beta software which, while unlikely, may cause crashes or other errors on your PC, and agree to use the software at your own risk. Microsoft will not be responsible for repairing or replacing personal equipment that may be damaged as a result of using beta software.

14. After submitting the application survey, you may receive emails from Microsoft Studios with announcements and important information regarding the beta software.

For those of us that enjoyed the stop action Christmas movies in the past as part of growing up, Bing has brought them back this holiday season. This one features the snowman not quite getting his roar right so he uses Bing. It’s a must see video!

Microsoft is going to push the Kinect into the PC world with a strong hand. They are holding a program to help 10 developers or companies with development help from Microsoft themselves, along with some capital, development kits and expert help.

Bringing the Kinect to the PC is going to really bring the “Minority Report” feel home. I really don’t like using that reference, and it is overused when it comes to the Kinect, but it is a reality. That is the best way to describe what is coming – nothing else really can describe it! With a new Kinect that can respond to gestures as close as 50cm, roughly 20 inches, it will be a non-touchscreen way to interact with your PC without a mouse and keyboard. While this isn’t for everyone, and may start out as a novelty, I’m sure that the applications that use the new technology will be very effective and possibly usher in a new era of gesture based, “hands off” interaction with your PC. We’re just waiting for that one killer app!

The ten people or startups accepted into the Kinect Accelerator program will spend three months in Seattle working out of the Kinect Accelerator office, where they will receive technical training and support and be mentored by entrepreneurs, investors and Microsoft executives. They will also get US$20,000, an Xbox development kit, and the Windows Kinect SDK (software development kit). At the end of the program, the companies will present their business ideas to angel investors, venture capitalists and the media, and potentially receive additional funding.

According to new research from Forrester, Microsoft may be missing the perfect time for tablets. Earlier this year nearly 50% of surveyed consumers wanted a Windows powered tablet compared to only 25% today. The desire for the Windows Tablet is waning, and Microsoft may have to pull a magic rabbit from their hat to get consumers back in the mood for Windows on the small screen.

Cheap alternatives, like the Amazon Fire and the Nook Tablet are bringing down the need and want for an expensive, but fully featured, tablet like a Windows powered or an iPad. Android powered tablets still haven’t reached the personality and ease of use of an iPad and this would be a great place to help Microsoft gain some leverage. Users want a tablet to be a tablet OS: easy to use, quick, very simple yet powerful. They don’t want a full fledged desktop operating system with a million options to get the thing working. It just has to work, which is what the Windows Phone 7 does quite well, and I hope it translates into Windows 8.

For product strategists, Windows 8 tablets provide a cautionary tale: To be a fast-follower, you must amp up the experience — and do so quickly, before the market changes beyond recognition. Windows 8 tablets must provide consumers with a more differentiated product experience than it otherwise would have, had Microsoft entered the market sooner. They’ll have to take a lesson from Amazon’s product strategists, who fundamentally changed the tablet product experience by leading with content and services rather than feeds and speeds, at a compelling price point. In the rapidly evolving tablet market, Amazon — and Barnes & Noble, with its Nook Tablet — demonstrate fast following done right.

Last week marked the highest selling week in the history of the Xbox 360’s 7 year history. With 960,000 consoles sold last week in the United States, it made an amazing sales record, continuing the Microsoft’s console record sales year. Of note is that 800,000 of those sales were in a single day. 750,000 Kinect devices were also sold (both stand alone and bundled with the console) during the week.

I have to say that is an amazing feat for such an “old” console. With sales still very strong, it may push the next generation of consoles out a bit further.

“We have seen tremendous excitement from customers for our hot holiday gaming offers,” said Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of Home Entertainment at Best Buy. “Xbox 360 was among the best-sellers at Best Buy this Black Friday, and is a testament to the continued popularity of the gaming category this holiday.”

While some are upset about the revelation that the Windows 95 startup music was done on a Mac, there are those of us that see it for what it is: someone used a tool to create something for a different tool. I don’t hate Mac’s, or Apple in general. They are good tools for what they do. I just don’t have any need for the tool. Some people go their whole lives without touching a wrench (I can’t go a week, BTW). I just happen to use Microsoft tools mainly (and a few Linux based). They get the job done that I need done. If I needed something that required a Mac, so be it. I’d use a Mac to get the job done. I know quite a bit of ‘softies that use Mac’s and iPhones and other Apple products.

I bet Sony executives use Microsoft OS’s, among others, to create PS3 games. So does Nintendo for their Wii. Ouch, feel that sting? Nah, me neither.

For those nostalgic types out there, here is the old startup music. Bring back memories. Good ones and nightmareish ones! I hated supporting that old OS once it’s successors came along.

I used WordPerfect long ago, and while it was a decent word processing system, I quickly transitioned to Microsoft Word due to it’s ease of use and better integration with Windows. WordPerfect seemed to stay behind in a DOS like phase, not wanting to grow into the better Windows interface – perhaps not sure if Windows would be as popular as it has become. Bill Gates testified in a Novell lawsuit against Microsoft today stating the obvious: Word is/was better than WordPerfect.

"We worked super hard [in 1995]," Gates said. "It was the most challenging, trying project we had ever done."

Novell failed to drive improvements in WordPerfect, Gates said. And that, combined with Microsoft’s relentless drive to improve its own product, is why Word beat WordPerfect. But WordPerfect had lost well before Windows 95 was released, he added, noting that Word had supplanted WordPerfect as the best-selling word processor for personal computers in 1994. "That was an important win for us," he said.

Steven Sinofsky has updated the Building Windows 8 blog today with a nice write up on the Windows 8 setup experience. Many users decided against upgrading to Windows 7 due to the complexity of the installation, even though they would like to have upgraded. The setup is probably the most intimidating part of the upgrade. Learning the new OS is a notch below that. There are some great new features included in the Windows 8 setup process that will help streamline and make your setup experience much easier.

In Windows 8, rather than having Upgrade Advisor, Setup, and Windows Easy Transfer as separate apps or features, we’ve folded them together into one fast and fluid experience in which we first determine if your PC, apps, and devices will work in the new OS, note which things you want to keep (apps, files and/or settings), and then install the new OS.

We’ve also added the capability for setup to resume automatically after certain actions (such as resolving a blocking compatibility problem), which in the past would have required restarting setup again from the beginning.