microsoft

Windows grows up

1 March 2012
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And from aesthetically disgusting… to visually stunning. We’ve always said that what Microsoft started with Zune, then Windows Mobile 7 and last year with Win8 will end well. So well that they’ve managed to transform Barcelona’s MWC into a free Windows 8 buzz release for their consumer (beta) “preview”. One day after it’s already been downloaded 1 million times

Windows 8 IE browser screen
Windows 8 IE browser screen

After paying careful attention at the “Consumer preview” evolution of W8m 48 hours of free PR in most gadget (and non-gadget) blogs & publications (like us? ooohps), comparisons, reviews, gesture and UX evaluations… etc, we have to say… maybe what Google has been cooking in the past few years, maybe what Apple has managed to achieve since the iPhone & the iPad… maybe it will all explode into 1 Million little pieces of glittery magic!

Ok that’s assuming too many things, too far, but M$softs’ Win8 is not only generating a LOT of expectation, but making people dream with something completely new, just like Apple did nearly 5 years ago. Still there’s a lot to be done, especially when it comes to make everyone forget the traditional desktop experience still exists in the Win8 backyard.

But for now you’ll have to agree (whether you’re anyone’s fanboy or fangirl) that the old software elephant is back to claim their OS thrown in a big way. Now is up to OEMs and developers, developers developers!  Maybe worth reading TheVerge’s preview hands on… it’s only what will rule the world in a few months after all.

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Flight Simulator goes beta

2 December 2011
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One of the best simulators of all times has been Microsoft’s Flight, since 1982 when M$ started to port the simulator to IBM computers (although originally released a couple of years earlier for the Apple II) up to 2006 when the developing team was shut down and the last version was released (X), Flight simulator had always represented the best way for ordinary pc users like us to pretend we’re pilots.

better cities? will it crash?
better cities in "Flight"? will it crash?

When the project was discounted lovers and fans cried extensively…. but since it was announced last year hope came back to our lives. Hope, and a few airbuses, boeings, pipers and bombardiers. We’ve noticed how M$ kept releasing teasers, videos and new screencaptures of their forthcoming “Microsoft Flight” on their website. Now it’s beta time!

Spending hours looking down....
Spending hours looking down....

Microsoft just started taking beta tester applications for “Flight” starting … yesterday!  Microsoft Flight Beta is scheduled to kick-off in January 2012 so they opened the holy doors for testers yesterday on their website, you can either user Msoft Connect to join or email them to msflight@microsoft.com, be quick though… you know how fast these things move.

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M$oft imagines the future again

28 October 2011
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A couple of years ago Msoft came up with their very own vision of the future of productivity. An amazing video about the technologies they imagined in 2019, a video which obtained hundreds of thousands of hits (probably millions) but they pulled it from youtube short time after.

Now they’ve got a new vision of the future they’ve decided to upload it again, giving continuity to the lives of Ayla, Quin and Shannon (she’ll probably become a rebel adolescent in the next video if they keep the series going).

Kurt DelBene, president of the Office division describes the video as ideas  “based on real technology” and notice how they emphasize something barely exploited in their previous clip… voice commands (with all the Siri hype and now that we’re moving into a voice dictated society).

This time they’re not giving us a date (short after we imagine) but a few other sets & situations. From a school, a plane or a roof garden to a kitchen, a hotel or a futuristic General Motors car (which shares the road with Smarts & all!). A few errors as usual here and there but their virtual clean hyperproductive society is the kind of corporate image and communication we expect from a technological company, and not those cheesy surreal ads from the Win7party campaign.

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Windows 8

3 June 2011
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Presented a couple of days ago @ Computex and also @ All things Digital Windows 8 has gotten Microsoft back to the buzz once again. But will it last?

If we focus on the All Things Digital’s D9 conference demo by Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky & Win Experience VP Julie Green @, “Windows 8” was presented as an organic enlargement /extension of the refreshing Windows Mobile 7 we got to know late last year for desktop and slate form factors (or any other device pretty much).

As impressive and inciting as Win7mobile looked last year, the new Windows start screen would presumably get rid of the conventional icon/shortcut-desktop approach we’ve had since Win95 to propose a real-time customizable tile cascade like the mobile devices do today (well, actually customizable). Meaning you get “the most important updates” on your start screen.

At the same time Microsoft uploaded this video (part 1) presented by Jensen Harris which presents & summarises most of the things covered and already presented @ D9 and it’s on its way to grab 2 million visits (well done M$!… for once!).

We admit being impressed & excited… again. The Redmond guys really need a radical twist not only on their strategy (WiMo 7 apparently is not selling that well…) but on the look & feel of their products. After all, nearly 2 generations have grown up (us included) knowing only Microsoft products (and ignoring Apple & Linux a bit…), so when Google came into the OS battleground with their funny green bot and their superfast browsernowOS, we felt naturally attracted… it was new!

However a few itchy and interesting points were asked @ D9 while Win8 was presented (Kara)… the old file-management system is still there… the radical makeover doesn’t apply to other Microsoft products (Office brings the nightmares back…), the blending between both worlds hasn’t really occurred… etc.

Also nice to notice that “share” “search” & “connect” will be omnipresent options as part of the “start-home” swipe-bar.

More info @ ATD page.

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