Microsoft: the cloud is your future, and ours
Microsoft is doing what it can to promote cloud computing, focusing on the platform at the TechEd annual developer conference in Orlando, Fla. this week. In the event's opening keynote, Server and Tools chief Satya Nadella told a sold-out crowd of 10,000 that the future of Microsoft is in the cloud.
In the month or so leading up to TechEd, Microsoft has made a fair number of cloud-related announcements. Some of this is out of necessity, because of customer demand, but a lot of it has to do with competitive pressures.
Four stories you should read this Sunday, June 10
Three years ago, my Sunday mornings started with the New York Times. Now it's Feedly, which appealingly presents my RSS feeds synced from Google Reader. I mainly use the app on a tablet, and I highly recommend it. This morning, as Apple's developer conference approaches tomorrow, there are loads of punditry -- and much of it pointless.
Four posts caught my attention enough to write about them and all published over the weekend. Interestingly, the majority are guest posts rather than regular staff pieces.
Microsoft gets 80,000 seat Office 365 contract with FAA, DOT
Microsoft's Office 365 cloud productivity suite gained even more momentum on Thursday, with both the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration announcing they will move some 80,000 employees to the platform.
The deal is worth some $91 million over seven years, and is provided through Microsoft partner Computer Sciences Corp. Office 365 plays a central role in the SaaS deal, which will offer DOT and FAA employees email, instant messaging, calendaring and webconferencing tools in a multi-platform environment.
Nike+ fitness tracking integrated into Xbox Kinect? Not so fast, Marathon Man
At the Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi talked about a rather amazing brand partnership, introducing Stefan Olander, Nike vice president. The Nike+ service, already made famous for its partnerships with Apple, and the ability to help track your workouts and keep you motivated to stay fit, is coming to the Xbox 360. Olander came on to show us the history of Nike+ and the goals of Nike to help empower the athlete in everyone to reach their peak of performance. A demo of footage of a title called Nike+ Kinect Training hit the jumbo screen with flashes of CGI models inter-spliced with live action human models demonstrating moves -- even flash of a screenshot showing the Nike+ app on a Windows Phone tracking a workout.
But not much else was talked about. Would Nike+ track you as you played all kinect titles? Would you know just how many calories you might have lost while shaking your money maker to the dance moves of Dance Central 3? Would you be able to know you not only saved the world with the Mutant, Magic, and Technology infused powers in Avengers: Battle For Earth? What about the workout you get from a magical onslaught you wrought upon the hoards of baddies in Fable: the Journey?
Microsoft wants Azure cloud to play with the big boys
Microsoft beefed up its Windows Azure cloud platform Thursday, announcing a host of features that take it out of a primarily Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) role and place it into the realm of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). The Redmond, Wash. company appears ready to take on IaaS heavyweights like Rackspace and Amazon Web Services, as well as new entrant Oracle, who announced its own cloud offering on Wednesday.
Microsoft doesn't "catch a new trend right with the first iteration but they keep at it and eventually strike the right tone and in more cases than not, get good enough", Forrester analyst James Staten says of the company's moves. "And often good enough wins".
Hands-on with Microsoft's SmartGlass [video]
Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass announcement yesterday provided a shot of adrenaline in the aging leg of the Xbox 360. While Kinect was a way to extend the life of the console for a couple of years during the motion control craze, SmartGlass is a further push to open the console to unique gameplay elements in the future, and to advance the "settopboxification" of the Xbox 360 console.
This is a good thing.
Google announces upgrade to Maps and Earth: First step, offline mode for mobile
Google on Wednesday announced some upcoming changes to its geospatial products Maps and Earth, which promise to greatly improve the user experience with the two services.
These changes will include more "Street View" maps for areas where there's no street, an expanded presence of Google's DIY mapping tool Map Maker which will be available in South Africa, Egypt, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, and greatly improved 3D aerial imagery in Google Earth.
Microsoft gives back to Android, but users say 'no thanks'
Thanks to some smart lawyering or perhaps fears CEO Steve Ballmer will show up unannounced, Microsoft has negotiated envious patent fee payments from nearly all major Android licensees. So there's something fitting about the software giant giving a little something back to Android, by way of an exclusive app -- well for now -- on{X}. Or perhaps it's a Trojan Horse to undo Android phones, chopping up performance or draining battery life. Or maybe Microsoft sees Android users as easy beta testers, considering the more rigorous standards for getting into Apple's App Store than Google Play.
One thing is certain: Early on{X} users despise the app, which has some of the worst reviews you'll see at Google Play. As I post, the app has average rating of 1.8 stars out of five. Among the 244 reviewers, 178 give the app a single star. Ouch! I had planned to grab this one, which is available in beta, but skipped after seeing the scathing response.
Zune -- It's really dead this time
Stop me if you heard this one before: the Zune is dead. Buried within Microsoft's slate of announcements at E3 was a change in branding, which effectively kills off the Zune altogether. A new music service is in the cards, called Xbox Music, which will be its replacement.
The Xbox branding is more appropriate considering the service will be available across Microsoft's disparate platforms -- Windows 8 computers and devices, Windows Phones, and the Xbox 360. Removing the Zune branding also gives the service a fresh start, free from the negative connotations the Zune name may have among many consumers.
The SmartGlass is more than half full for Microsoft Xbox
Ahead of the E3 Expo's first full day, Microsoft unveiled "Xbox SmartGlass", which is an app not a piece of glass. The agnostic application runs on Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Windows 8 -- and its synergy with the latter matters most to Microsoft.
In a platform that I can only say out-Wii's the Wii, SmartGlass will bring a large dynamic to games and to media playback. Some of the features look similar to Apple's Airplay by allowing users to send video and audio to the TV with a flick of a finger. But there's more -- particularly the content synchronization and integration SmartGlass brings among devices.
Techies, June will be the most amazing month EVER
Save your greenbacks now. During these thirty days you'll hear about lots of innovative and imitative products coming for the holidays. There's no coal in Santa's stocking this year, just too much tech to fit your gift list.
Not since the late 1990s, when seemingly every day some vendor announced a new PC that was ever-so-better than the one you bought the week before, is there so much new tech coming so close together. The cloud connected-device era ushers in a storm of tech. Save up now so you don't break the bank account or exceed credit card limits later.
What's in game at E3 Expo? You wanna know, and we're gonna tell you
Follow me, Patrick Roanhouse, as I cover major press news from the E3: Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the the biggest video game trade show in the United States. Developed and birthed when the video game industry outgrew the once gigantic consumer electronics tradeshow Comdex, E3 expo first pressed the start button in 1995.
Historically Los Angeles based, E3 Expo marks the start-off point for the titans of the video game industry to sell their newest wares to retail corperate buyers for the Latin, American, and European markets in Las Vegas-level neon showcases. An industry, journalism, and buyer only tradeshow, attending E3 Expo typically is the the dream for most video game nerds eager to see the next big thing.
Microsoft turns on 'Do Not Track' in Internet Explorer 10 by default
In a move that is sure to rankle web advertisers, Microsoft late Thursday disclosed that Internet Explorer will have "Do Not Track" functionality on by default. This will prevent browser data crucial to behavioral and targeted advertising from being sent to third parties and could seriously disrupt the advertising industry in general.
Microsoft is vowing to move ahead despite the complaints of the industry. "While some people will say that this change is too much and others that it is not enough, we think it is progress and that consumers will favor products designed with their privacy in mind over products that are designed primarily to gather their data", IE vice president Dean Hachamovitch says.
Microsoft debuts Visual Studio 2012, .NET 4.5 and Windows Server 2012 release candidates
Microsoft's suite of enterprise products isn't about to let the consumer-facing ones steal the headlines. On the same day the Redmond, Wash. company announced the Release Preview of Windows 8, the company's enterprise and developer software arm announced the release candidates of .NET Framework 4.5, Visual Studio 2012 and Windows Server 2012.
Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 are available for download by anyone by visiting the Visual Studio 2012 website, while Windows Server 2012 is available only to TechNet and MSDN subscribers by visiting TechNet.
And here it is: Windows 8 Release Preview
As we all were expecting thanks to an errant blog post early this morning, Microsoft has announced the availability of the Windows 8 Release Preview in fourteen different languages worldwide.
© 1998-2026 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.