Upcoming Patch Tuesday

By DustinPosted on

Patch Tuesday is coming up, so make sure your PC is patched up and secure. This week is going to be a small one, with only 2 updates and only 1 of them is a critical update.

Of the patches to be issued on Tuesday, only one is rated critical — the highest threat level on Microsoft’s scale. However, the vulnerability affects all supported versions of Windows — from Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) through Windows 7. The same bug also affects Windows Server releases but is only rated important, Microsoft’s second-highest threat level.

11 Resolutions Microsoft Should Make

By DustinPosted on

Betanews has a list of 11 new year resolutions Microsoft should make this year. I have to say I agree with all of them. I’ve been saying the same things for years. Microsoft needs to get back out there and be a company that people are excited about again. Remember Windows 95 and the lines of people just to be the first to buy it? They need that excitement again. Even the suggestion of bringing Bill Gates back in as a marketing tool would be great. Come on, Microsoft, you need to bring back the gold that you once had!

Unlike past years’ advice — eh, resolutions — this list is more thematic. Microsoft has a huge perception problem, and as I’ve so many times asserted: In business perception is everything. The people with the loudest voices, such as analysts, bloggers, journalists, marketers and software developers are pining for companies like Apple or Google. This translates directly to Microsoft’s share price, which is moribund and undervalued. In November I asked: “Why won’t Wall Street give Microsoft a break?” Perception is a major part of the answer.

NES Emulator Not Allowed On WP7

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft has denied a developer’s NES emulator application for the Windows Phone 7 Market. While Neowin’s users actually understand why this isn’t allowed, as many others do, the developer thinks that it is an abomination! What is your take on emulators and ROM’s? Should you be able to legally download the emulator but the ROM’s be pirated (which they all are, unless you rip them yourself)?

For its part, Microsoft gives a strong indication as to its stance on game emulation on Windows Phone devices. In a post on the official App Hub forums (also quoted on Mr Bettcher’s YouTube page), it is stated that:

”Microsoft takes intellectual property rights very seriously.  If you post a game/image/source that uses unauthorized intellectual property, we will delete it immediately.  This includes technologies that are clearly intended to enable unauthorized use of intellectual property, such as game console emulators.”

Windows Phone 7 Passes 5000 Apps

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft’s Application market for the Windows Phone 7 has surpassed the 5,000 mark and is still growing fast. While it still pales in comparison to the Android Market or Apple App Store, it is still a major achievement. I plan on making a few WP7 applications as soon as Verizon releases a WP7 on their network. I have the emulator and Visual Studio 2010 ready, just need an actual phone to test things on. Hurry up, Verizon! Your customers are waiting! I’m ready to ditch Android. I don’t care if you ever offer an iPhone, I want the Windows Phone 7!

The store size is still well behind those of Apple (300,000) and Google (100,000) but, in roughly two months, has closed in on virtually all small-scale mobile app portals. It has already caught up to Palm’s 1.5 year old webOS store and now has a third of the 15,000 apps of BlackBerry App World despite RIM’s store being older than Palm’s.

Bing Offers A Free Song

By DustinPosted on

Bing is saying Thank You by giving you a free song. All you need to do is go here and put in your email address. Bing will send you a code for a single song of your choosing. Note: by putting in your email address, you are also subscribed to the Bing newsletter.

To get your free song:

  1. Enter your email address in the box below.
  2. We’ll send you an email with your personal song code and instructions for how to redeem it.
  3. Follow the instructions to choose and download your song.

By providing your email address you agree to receive future communications about Bing, including the Bing newsletter. The newsletter gives you tips & tricks plus news about all the great features and programs Bing has to offer. You can unsubscribe at any time. Get started now.

Microsoft #1 Innovative Company In 2010

By DustinPosted on

The Street, an investing and trading website, has named Microsoft number one in innovative companies of 2010. I believe that Microsoft has earned this, even though some of their products have been moved to the back burner lately. The revolutionary Kinect has opened a lot of doors for game developers as well as hardware hackers. There is a lot of potential for the add-on, and it has sold an amazing amount of units since it’s release. There are some things I’d like to see Microsoft move forward a bit faster, namely the Zune HD. The Windows Phone 7 is a great device, but sales have been less than stellar. Once Verizon gets some vendors on deck to offer WP7 under their network, I’m sure sales will increase quite a bit. I know I am going to be jumping on this. Congratulations to Microsoft for keeping up with innovation and keep moving forward!

First off, after slimming its Xbox 360 hardware and just about eliminating the “red circle of death” failures that cost gamers hundreds of dollars in console investment, Microsoft snagged the console sales lead from Nintendo’s Wii and has held it for months. Also, after years of taking a back seat to the Wii’s fun little motion controllers and Miis and getting beaten to market by Sony’s(SNE) PlayStation Move motion device, Microsoft sold 1 million versions of its $150 controller-free Kinect motion-capture device within 10 days of its Nov. 4 release and 2.5 million before the end of November. By all accounts, that should have been a tough sell, considering the console itself goes for as little as $199, but a good concept and great third-party partner products such as Viacom’s(VIA) infectious Dance Central remind us what Microsoft is capable of when its back is to the wall.

Windows 7 Pirating: How Hard Is It?

By DustinPosted on

Ed Bott of ZDNet has traveled to the dark side and has pirated Windows 7. For educational purposes, of course. I’ve always gotten a good deal on my software, and if I couldn’t afford it, I didn’t upgrade. My OS was usually the first purchase I made, and other software was either a generation behind or open source and free. I haven’t attempted to pirate a Microsoft OS in ages (XP, I think I did for fun – I had a legit license for XP Pro), but it looks like it is more difficult than ever, and a lot more risky. The malware and rootkit risk alone is enough to make me not want to attempt it. I always chalk the OS cost as part of a PC build along with the hardware, so it’s not too big of a deal. Others that are thinking of attempting to pirate their way into a copy of Windows 7 may want to read this article before you take the plunge. I don’t condone piracy, but I can’t stop anyone. I can only warn them of the dangers lurking out there!

If you do intend to try this stuff out for yourself, I recommend extreme caution. My hunt for utilities that bypass Windows 7 activation technologies led me to some very seedy corners of the Internet. First, I did what any red-blooded wannabe pirate would do and tried some Google searches. Of the first 10 hits, six were inactive or had been taken down. After downloading files from the remaining four sites, I submitted them to Virustotal.com, where three of the four samples came back positive for nasty, difficult-to-remove Windows 7 rootkits.


Office 365 Seems Ho-Hum…

By DustinPosted on

ComputerWorld takes the new Microsoft “To The Cloud!” Office 365 application for a test drive. All in all, they liked it but it is not without its faults. There is still a lot of work to be done with it.

Don’t be confused by the product’s name — it’s not a new or updated version of Microsoft Office. Office 365 is an upgrade of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS). This revamped and renamed version of thBut the product, at least in its current form, has enough rough edges that it feels more like a series of applications bolted together than a well-thought-out, integrated whole.e suite adds subscription-based access to Office 2010 to BPOS and includes hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync (Microsoft’s communications server), along with Office Web Apps, the Web-based version of Microsoft Office.

…

But the product, at least in its current form, has enough rough edges that it feels more like a series of applications bolted together than a well-thought-out, integrated whole.

Windows 8 Focuses On Bringing PC Gaming Back

By DustinPosted on

There are many that claim that PC gaming is dying. With so many poor console to PC ports, I’m starting to wonder if developers are forgetting about the PC. Occasionally, there are some knock out PC games without being ported and they really show off what a PC can do. But, there are less A+ titles out there these days than what used to be. Microsoft aims to change that with Windows 8. I’m really looking forward to the new Flight Simulator that they are working on. I’m hoping they have a beta for it like they do with Age of Empires Online.

A relaunched Games for Windows marketplace was a recent fillip, but it is the hiring of Rahul Sood, the founder of gaming computer brand Voodoo PC and previously an outspoken critic of the Redmond company’s attitude towards PC gaming that underlines what TechRadar has been told about Windows 8.

“Windows 8 will represent a real new push into PC gaming,” the source told TechRadar. “Gaming will be a key component for the whole OS.”

Along with the new store, Microsoft has shown signs of waking from its PC gaming slumber in the course of 2010.

The announcement of a new Age of Empires game, along with Fable 3 and an updated Flight Simulator appear to be the green shoots of the new attitude.

Bad Parenting Gives Kinect A Bad Name

By DustinPosted on

A company has started work on a XXX game for the Kinect system, which has some parents running scared. I don’t let my kids play the XBox without me being there or know exactly what they are playing. If you throw a kid in front of the TV and XBox as if it were your babysitter, then of course they will eventually find something inappropriate. This goes for all games and television. There are things that I won’t let my kids play or watch. I monitor my kids when they play. There are some parents out there that are scared their child will download this game and play it without the parents knowledge. I chalk it up to bad parenting. Microsoft says they will block the title from online sources or being released as a physical game, but there are ways that this will end up in the public hands.

The company admits the maker of Kinect, Microsoft, did not give them permission to use their system,In fact, the company hacked the technology.As soon as they got word, Microsoft issued a statement saying they would block the game from being released which was supposed to be available online. It is still not comfort enough for the Valverde’s.”Anybody can get on-line with the XBOX360,” said Angelica.”It’s a possibility he could be able to buy it without me actually knowing.”