Microsoft Begins Pushing Cut/Paste Update

By DustinPosted on

Developers have started to get the new update from Microsoft for the Windows Phone 7 which includes the Cut & Paste functionality. This was promised from the beginning, and it is starting to get into the cycle of updates. How long did it take the iPod Touch/iPhone? I know that was a lot of the animosity from the Apple crowd about the Windows Phone 7. It’s turning out to be a real nice platform.

“A user can tap a word in mail, IE, Word, etc and that word is then highlighted with arrows on both sides. One can then drag to the left or right to include more words. An icon appears above the highlighted word(s) (looks very similar to the copy icon in Office 2010) to copy. Open a new document, once the cursor is set/blinking and the soft keyboard appears, a paste icon (again, looks the same as the paste icon in Office 2010) is shown just above the top row of letters. In “Messaging”, a user can long press a specific IM which open up the hidden menu that now includes copy. Paste where you wish…”

MS Office 2010 Celebrates 6 Months

By DustinPosted on

6 Months ago, Microsoft unleashed Office 2010 onto the public. It looks like it has been a great success so far, with excellent growth and market penetration. There are many reasons to upgrade to the newest version of Office, but for many, Office 2007 is still “good enough”. Those that need basic features for school or home could get by with Office 2007. Anything more than that, and you will find a lot of potential with Office 2010.

First, customers are buying Office 2010 at a record pace. Office has seen double-digit growth in its first full quarter on the market, a 50 percent increase in business non-annuity sales, and a 5 percent increase in multi-year licenses in Q1. Needless to say, we’re delighted by the rate of adoption and interest from consumer and business customers. While the numbers are amazing, what pleases us even more are the many ways customers have become more efficient and productive as a result of implementing Office 2010.

IE6 Usage Down, IE9 Usage Up

By DustinPosted on

Finally, people are weening themselves off the ancient internet browser, Internet Explorer 6. The beta of Internet Explorer 9 has shown a lot of interest,with over 15 million downloads so far. While the IE9 beta won’t replace the browser in businesses quite yet, until the final is released, it is nice to see a beta making such an impact. It is also very good that people are moving away from the insecure and vulnerable Internet Explorer 6.

Moreover, Microsoft said enterprises are adopting modern browsers even more quickly, as evidenced by only 10.3 percent of enterprises running IE6. And IE8 and IE9 continue to grow—current usage share for each browser version has increased this month to 32.75 percent and 0.38 percent, respectively. As of Dec. 1, Microsoft’s IE team said they have seen more than 15 million downloads of the IE9 beta.

AVG Update Kills Windows 7 64-Bit

By DustinPosted on

AVG released an update yesterday that rendered 64-Bit versions of Windows 7 useless. The update caused an endless reboot loop with the error “STOP: c0000135 The program can’t start because %hs is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.”. AVG has since fixed the update and it is now safe to do updates now. There are instructions on how to fix the damage of the first update here.

We are sorry to report that we have identified a potential conflict between one of our recent updates (3292) and a significant number of systems running on the Windows 7 64-bit platform that has caused systems to go into an infinite crash loop.

We regret any inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working  quickly to resolve this issue.

It appears that the problems are most prevalent in Windows 7 64-bit systems. This is because a wrong update file is being served into the product. We removed the update immediately after the problem was identified and will release a program to ensure that the fix is completed automatically as soon as possible.

In the interim, we encourage our Windows 7 64-bit customers to do the following: Watch this video or follow the instructions below this video to help you solve this problem.


Google Chome Adds Sandbox For Flash Apps

By DustinPosted on

Google’s alternative, and fast, browser now includes a sandbox feature for Adobe Flash applications. Chrome has always been a nice browser, and less vulnerable to attacks, and this adds one more layer of protection. You can download Chrome here.

Since this past March, we’ve been working closely with Adobe to allow Flash Player to take advantage of new sandboxing technology in Chrome, extending the work we’ve already done with sandboxing for HTML rendering and JavaScript execution. This week, we’re excited to roll out the initial Flash Player sandbox for our dev channel users on Windows XP, Vista and 7.

This initial Flash Player sandbox is an important milestone in making Chrome even safer. In particular, users of Windows XP will see a major security benefit, as Chrome is currently the only browser on the XP platform that runs Flash Player in a sandbox. This first iteration of Chrome’s Flash Player sandbox for all Windows platforms uses a modified version of Chrome’s existing sandbox technology that protects certain sensitive resources from being accessed by malicious code, while allowing applications to use less sensitive ones. This implementation is a significant first step in further reducing the potential attack surface of the browser and protecting users against common malware.

While we’ve laid a tremendous amount of groundwork in this initial sandbox, there’s still more work to be done. We’re working to improve protection against additional attack vectors, and will be using this initial effort to provide fully sandboxed implementations of the Flash Player on all platforms.

We’ll be posting updates as we continue working with Adobe to add new security improvements to the Flash Player sandbox. For those of you on the dev channel for Windows, you’ll be automatically updated soon, and we look forward to your feedback as you test it out. If you prefer to disable this initial sandbox in your Chrome dev experience, add –disable-flash-sandbox to the command line.

Microsoft Announces Silverlight 5

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft has announced Silverlight 5 to developers at an online event. Unless Adobe can get Flash to work correctly (stable 64-bit, use less than 100% CPU), I see Silverlight replacing it soon. Not to mention it is on the WP7 and XBox 360 now.

Introducing Silverlight 5, Guthrie said the next version is a “major new release” that brings new enhancements for media. Silverlight 5 introduces the following support:

  • Hardware media decoding – can stream 1080p video on Netbooks
  • Trickplay – variable playback of video and audio including pitch correction
  • Power management – less battery used during playback and richer power management
  • Remote control – 10ft experience against a PC and can take advantage of remote controls for playback
  • 64-bit version of Silverlight
  • Databinding enhancements

    • Microsoft To Get Back Into TV

    By DustinPosted on

    Microsoft is in talks to bring subscription based TV to your XBox 360. It isn’t supposed to launch for at least another year or so, but if this happened, it would bring down a lot of cable services. If the price is right, it may make a dent in dish services with local channels. I would love to have it so I could watch my favorite show, Fringe, without waiting for it on Hulu (Dish doesn’t have Fox in my area).

    One scenario under consideration by Microsoft is to create a new TV service on its Xbox gaming console that would establish a “virtual cable operator.” The service would charge a monthly fee for access through the Xbox to networks such as ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN or CNN, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

    New Kinect Hack Uses 2 Kinect’s

    By DustinPosted on

    There have been a lot of hacks using the new Kinect, but this may be the first one that utilizes 2 of them at the same time. Personally, I’d like to see 3, maybe 4, to get all angles and make a complete 3D representation of the room. That’d be awesome. Still, this one looks pretty great! It needs some cleanup of the image, but this is definitely just a proof of concept. I like how when a part is hidden from one camera, the other takes over and keeps it textured.

    First test of merging the 3D video streams from two Kinect cameras into a single 3D reconstruction. The cameras were placed at an angle of about 90 degrees, aimed at the same spot in 3D space.

    The two cameras were calibrated internally using the method described in the previous video, and were calibrated externally (with respect to each other) using a flat checkerboard calibration pattern and manual measurements.

    Windows Phone 7 Update Get Appraise In Advance

    By DustinPosted on

    Chris Walsh, one of the developers behind ChevronWP7, has made some comments about the newest update to Windows Phone 7. It sounds like it is going to be one huge update, and definitely make it a competitor for the iPhone and Android. Apple took a long time to bring multi-tasking, cut and paste, and other features, but Microsoft is bringing it in only 3 months. That should quiet a lot of the haters saying that the Windows Phone 7 is so behind and not worth anything!

    We have a feeling that’s just the beginning, as Chris Walsh, known for his contribution to ChevronWP7, has evidently been leaked some info on the update, calling it “massive” and more tantalizingly, “MS took 3 months to do what Apple did in 3 years” and “Lets just say the could have called it Windows Phone 8”–that’s exactly the kind of thing we and the market in general want to hear.