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Tag: windows-8

  • Microsoft to Release Windows-Based Smartphone

    Microsoft prepares a Windows smartphone under its own brand. Designed for the premium segment, the prototype is already operational, currently being under testing, according to sources inside the company, quoted by wpcentral.com, which reinforce the rumors previously circulated in the Chinese media.

    The Microsoft phone is different from other models that run the Windows operating system on the market, being a single product, said a source inside the company, who did not provide information on the smartphone’s features, prices or expected date of release.

    The cited person added that the phone already exists as a prototype and is being tested.

    China Times wrote on Monday, without sourcing the information, that Microsoft is working on a Windows phone.

    Microsoft introduced this spring the Surface tablet, proving that it has the resources to create their own completely new hardware product. The company avoided leaking information to the press shortly before disclosing the tablet. Surface will be available after the release of Windows 8, scheduled for October 26.
    Windows Phone 8 was adopted by Nokia, the main hardware partner of Microsoft, but also by Samsung and HTC, which presented their own competing models. Windows Phone 8 phones will be available somewhere in November, after the release of the operating system.

    Redmond company may choose to sell their hardware products on Microsoft Store, in order to don’t bother hardware partners, which largely depend on the sales by telecom operators at subsidized prices with the signing of a subscription for a period of time, usually two years.

    At the same time, preparing its own smartphone could represent a “plan B” for Microsoft to promote Windows Phone 8, if Nokia’s models will not be successful.

    Another possibility circulated in specialized media would be an alleged state of discontent in Microsoft’s management board regarding Nokia’s marketing strategy, which would focus too much on Lumia brand and too little on Windows. This variant seems to be reinforced by Microsoft’s participation at the recent event held in New York and organized by HTC, which showed its Windows Phone 8 models, a competition for Nokia’s Lumia range.

  • Microsoft Retools SkyDrive Cloud Storage

    Microsoft already offers a market-leading cloud storage service through their SkyDrive system. But the computing giant isn’t resting on its laurels, as evidenced by the recent announcement of some major upgrades to their offerings.

    According to the company’s debriefing, SkyDrive’s entire interface has been retooled, and will now match the tile-centric layout of all other Windows 8 devices. The new layout, deemed ‘Metro’ by Microsoft, will appear consistently on all the company’s new releases, include the upgraded Office release and new Windows operating system.

    In addition, Microsoft has added to SkyDrive’s search capabilities, expanded the sorting options, and improved the functioning of the drag-and-drop features. The SkyDrive desktop app has also received upgrades that should smooth performance on both Mac OS X and Windows 8 platforms, helping bulk uploads complete faster and with less glitches.

    Microsoft has also taken off all restrictions from the SkyDrive API, giving programmers the ability to adjust its functioning to their needs. This now allows third-party apps of all sorts to be uploaded to the Drive, making their cloud storage system welcoming for as many devices and users as possible.

    These significant upgrades shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to fans of Microsoft or industry experts. It’s been clear for well over a year now that Microsoft feels their SkyDrive will soon become one of the cornerstone products in their library. And since it will seamlessly integrate into all other Windows-powered desktop and mobile devices, they expect an increase in user retention across the board.

  • Skype Working Out Instant Messaging Bug

    Skype has long set the standard for both video conferencing and VoIP communications, as their products were one of the first to cross operating systems, and is now the VoIP option integrated with social networking giant Facebook. But many consumers have run into issues in recent weeks, as instant messages sent over Skype have been accidentally sent to the incorrect contact, creating a host of awkward situations. Luckily, Skype is moving quickly to address the problem, so their millions of customers can rest easy that things should soon go back to normal.

    Skype first became aware of the glitch on a user forum. The misdirected IM’s became an issue any time Skype crashed in the midst of an instant message session. The last IM sent would accidentally go to a different contact once the user logged back into his account. Although Skype was incredibly apologetic about the bug, they announced they didn’t feel it has affected a large number of users, and shouldn’t dissuade anyone from trusting their VoIP needs to the service.

    VoIP-List.com: extensive catalog of voip providers, available software and hardware resources.

    Not only is the situation rather unique, but it also only impacted particular iterations of Skype. The versions in question seem to be Skype 5.8 for Mac, Skype 4.0 for Linux, Skype 5.10 for Windows, and Skype 1.2 running on Windows mobile devices. Customers were asked to upgrade to the latest version, which should solve the issue. Skype also took the opportunity to fix the File Sending option on their desktop software, so that users with a FAT32 hard drive can now save files consistently.

    Skype has risen swiftly in the VoIP world, further buffered by their purchase by Microsoft last year. Skype will come built-in on Microsoft’s newest Windows release, Windows 8, and will integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Office 2013 when it heads to market next year.

  • Microsoft Moves Office to the Cloud

    Computing giant Microsoft recently announced the pending release of their Office 2013 software, further cementing their status as a leader in the new world of cloud computing. The latest iteration of Office will directly tie into the Microsoft SkyDrive, their cloud storage offering, which will also come built-in on all computers that carry the latest Windows 8 operating system.

    While previewing Office 2013 for current customers, Kirk Koenigsbauer, the VP in charge of the software bundle, pushed most of the focus onto SkyDrive. Customers favorably compared it to Dropbox, a much smaller company that is still Microsoft’s primary competition in this market.

    Microsoft also recently announced that the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro will only cost $40 when purchased directly through Microsoft’s online portal. This is a huge sea change for the company, which now seems willing to significantly lower upgrade charges in favor of gaining customers for SkyDrive and earning that regular, monthly usage fee. That also means that consumers could find Office 2013 carrying a much lower pricetag than previous versions when it enters the marketplace.

    Microsoft also seems to be pushing the limits with how their products integrate, following Google’s approach to the cloud storage market. The new Office will work seamlessly on all Microsoft hardware, as well as link in effortlessly with Windows 8 and other key applications such as Bing and Skype. It may take a while to see if the strategy pays off with increased support of SkyDrive, but in the crowded world of data storage, even a company as large as Microsoft seems willing to take the risk.

  • Stephen Elop in an Interview About Nokia and Windows

    In an interview with people at The Verge, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, was extremely pleased regarding the company’s performance after the first year of strategic partnership with Microsoft.

    Being obviously aware of the negative consequences of the radical strategy change, of which the most important is workforce reduction, Stephen Elop said that Nokia is currently in the middle of transition. Regarding the transition to Microsoft, Nokia CEO said: “One year after making big decisions on the company, I’m surer than ever that I made the right decisions”.

    Nokia’s impact on the development of Windows Phone starts to be felt just now, and the Finnish company still wants to influence the direction of this platform. Given that Microsoft is centralizing the entire ecosystem around the Metro interface, examples being Windows Phone, Windows 8 or Xbox Live, Stephen Elop showed confidence in expanding the Nokia’s influence towards multi-platform horizons, but this influence is currently in an early stage, details still being premature.

    As expected, in what concerns the tablets, Elop has shown interested in the field but also the reluctance, trying to make the best decision in this crowded market.

    Asked about the amalgamation of smartphones launched at MWC 2012, including those under the Nokia brand, Stephen Elop gave a cold and calculated answer: “Which one do you remember?” Unfortunately, a lack of differentiation between terminals it only reflects in a lot of terminals that will not keep the headlines too much.

    Regarding the last star in MWC 2012 – Nokia 808 PureView – and the decision to boost it with Symbian OS, the CEO said that the technology had to come out, being the best method at this time.

    In what concerns the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign, Stephen Elop has also shown his appreciation and enthusiasm. He said such an aggressive campaign based on tests and usage scenarios, rather than tables of specifications, is exactly what the platform needed in order to win in growth.

    However, it remains to be seen what Nokia will be up to over the next year or if Nokia will still exist…

    Read the full interview at The Verge.

  • CES 2012: Intel Sets New Standards in Smartphones and Tablets

    Intel has announced a series of progresses on its entire activity in the smartphones industry, including the signing of a partnership for several years on many devices with Motorola Mobility and provided information on a Lenovo smartphone based on the new platform of the Intel Atom processor. More Intel Atom-based smartphones are to hit the market in 2012.

    Paul Otellini, President and CEO of Intel, made the announcements during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Also, Intel CEO has offered information on the way Ultrabook is seen by users and has described the way the company develops products and technologies in order to provide high performance to a wide range of computing devices.

    Intel Computing Technologies Integrated into Smartphones and Tablets

    Intel CEO also talked about the Intel Atom Z2460 processor, formerly codenamed “Medfield”, which has been created specifically for smartphones and tablets, which is now offering high performance and greater energy efficiency.

    Sanjay Jha, Chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, joined Otellini on stage and they together detailed the strategic relationship between the two companies. The partnership includes the smartphones that Motorola will start to deliver in the second half of this year, terminal that will integrate Intel Atom processors and will run the Android platform. Collaboration, which also covers tablets, combines Intel’s leadership in terms of technology based on silicon and innovations in the computer industry with Motorola’s experience in terms of design for mobile equipments.

    Liu Jun, Lenovo’s Senior Vice President and President of Mobile Internet and Digital Home, also went along with Otellini on stage and presented the smartphone Lenovo K800, based on Intel technology and which uses the Android OS. Liu Jun said that the K800 will be available in China starting from the second quarter and will work on the 21 Mbps network of China Unicom. Lenovo K800 uses the Z2640 Intel Atom processor with Intel Hyper-Threading technology, supports HSPA and features Intel’s XMM 6260 platform. As interface, the model uses Lenovo LeOS.

    Otellini said the development of the best mobile experiences is a priority for Intel. Michael Bell, General Manager of Mobile and Communications Group at Intel, has also joined Otellini on stage and he has presented the Intel Smartphone Reference Design technology, which wants to reduce production time and cost for mobile developers and operators. The two Intel officials presented a smartphone with multiple functions, slim and which has a 4.03” touchscreen as well as two 8-megapixel cameras with advanced capabilities, including the “burst” mode, which allows users to take 15 photos in less than a second.

    By presenting the Angry Birds app on the phone, Bell showed that the smartphone equipped with Intel technology can run lots of applications for Android, but also for other operating systems.

    Otellini said that Intel will set new standards in the Tablet PC segment through the compatibility with millions of applications and devices already on the market. On stage at CES 2012 has been presented for the first time the 32nm Intel Atom processor for Tablet PCs and other hybrid devices running on Windows 8, codenamed "Clover Trail."

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