November 2011
1 post
3 tags
Clarity
One amazingly wrong story about Windows Phone has picked up a lot of steam lately. I’m afraid with my Rhythm post, I may have contributed to the problem. (Oddly, the Ecosystems post has gone relatively unnoticed, what with the recent Lenovo leak). I am referring to the widespread misconception the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will be a single OS, based on the current Windows 8. Not only is...
October 2011
4 posts
3 tags
Rebranding Microsoft
STATUTORY WARNING: Please check with @TomWarren of winrumors.com (who reminds of Matt Lewis, oddly enough) for authenticity/publish-ability of this content prior to creating an echo-chamber full of my crap.
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I really don’t care for Microsoft’s branding and marketing efforts. They’ve been utterly useless for ages. Apple may be blurting out lies, lies and more damn lies...
3 tags
Rhythm
This is a little something about Microsoft’s 2012 through 2014 platform plan. As always Microsoft and I are equally unreliable.
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CES 2012 Win8 + WinStore beta <ONM> CTP Tango1 launch
MWC 2012 Tango2 SDK
MIX 2012 Win8 RC <ONM> beta Tango2 launch + Apollo announce Kinect commercial SDK
E3 2012 Xbox SDK, 3G Kinect games announce Apollo SDK Win8 RTM
Aug 2012 Win8,...
3 tags
Nokia-soft
I started writing this in late February / early March of this year. An unexpected, career-related eight-month long break from writing followed. In the interim, I tweeted on all things sundry. Parts of this post are therefore anachronistic, and IMO, amusing.
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Some time ago, I asked people on Twitter what my next post should be about. The message was clear: people wanted to know how I...
4 tags
Ecosystems
Methinks the personal computing landscape over the next two years will look like this. Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter or your respective blogs. (Ecosystems are ordered by market share and only ones with a long-term future are included. *indicates exclusivity agreements in place or being negotiated).
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Windows 8:
Major: HP*, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus
Upcoming:...
February 2011
1 post
2 tags
Beating a dead horse
This post is a (no doubt futile) response to Google engineer, PR drone wannabe and whiner extraordinaire Matt Cutt’s latest attempt to stoke the fire. The five fundamental flaws in his argument are as follows:
Data Ownership & Origin: Google’s results as published on the open web are to be cordoned off by Bing from its web click activity data collection system. Let alone that...
January 2011
3 posts
3 tags
What's next, Microsoft? (or The Three-year Tactic)
As we are now only a little less than 3 weeks away from Mobile World Congress, I think it’s time to publish my third and final post in the what I had dubbed the “3-series” of posts. Better late than never, eh?
The next billion-dollar bet: The company is gearing up for a big gamble by directly entering the consumer and enterprise robotics markets within a little more than 2...
4 tags
The Tale of The Three Tablets
This post was going to go up two days ago. Lucky I procrastinated, because Microsoft announced ARM support in Windows 8. This news makes my thoughts a lot clearer regarding tablets, slates, journals and phones. On the other hand, it’s gonna make the future of Embedded and Xbox a lot cloudier. Allow me to explain:
The 3 tablets—whatever might that mean, eh? Well, I was hinting at the...
2 tags
The Three-Tiered Take
Ever since Microsoft was found to have abused its Windows monopoly to unfairly compete against Netscape, the idea that the company should have taken the option to split up has been thrown about at least once every year. There is little doubt that Microsoft has been pushing itself too thin by attempting to enter every market it possibly can. And that’s not for a lack of enough employees. It...
December 2010
1 post
3 tags
WatchSome photos from the Windows PC Holiday Showcase hosted by Microsoft at Cult Studios in New York on Monday, December 6th.
The photos are rather terrible because I took them with a Blackberry in a room that was bathed in dim blue light. If anyone knows who the lady photographer was (with the SLR strapped on), do let me know as she took quite a few photos that might actually be good.
Anyway, I was...
November 2010
1 post
2 tags
2 tags
Using IE9 Beta?
Your favorite source for Microsoft rumors, speculation and tips (other than WinRumors.com & all the veteran bloggers) now has a Windows 7 Jump List for your convenience. Simply drag the blog’s icon or tab in Internet Explorer 9 to your Superbar (taskbar) to pin it. You can also pin it to your start menu by clicking on the settings button and clicking Add site to Start menu from the File...
October 2010
4 posts
2 tags
On platforms & people… (or my attempt at a smart...
It took me a while to compose this post. The thoughts (a mix of tips, rumors, speculation and analysis) swirling about my head were many and varied and I found it difficult to fit them into a well-written piece. Eventually, I had to set my limits for the scope of this post to be pretty narrow to get it done. Without further ado, here’s the meat of the matter then.
Microsoft began life, as...
1 tag
7 ways to improve IE9
Links dragged to the desktop should just create old-school shortcuts and not site-mode IE as well, whereas those dragged to the taskbar OR start menu should create pinned sites.
Once Silverlight is available in 64-bit, please allow me to choose 64-bit IE as my default and stick to it. e.g. Pinned sites only open in 32-bit IE. Also, pinned sites should allow me to use plugins/addons other than...
1 tag
Microsoft's upcoming social gaming play
I was prompted to write this post after reading Mary Jo Foley’s post suggesting Microsoft might acquire Linden Labs to get in on the social gaming market before Google + Zynga eat it up. I had been tweeting about Microsoft’s upcoming social gaming moves for a while, but as it is not my primary interest, I avoided writing a post on it. Now, however, I feel the need to say a little...
August 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Extending Windows Phone 7
Microsoft is off to a good start with Windows Phone 7, but there is of course a lot more work to do. Some of it is rather obvious and is included in every single preview article on the web (Twitter integration/app, better multitasking for 3rd party apps, clipboard support). What every article does not do is go into suggesting how Microsoft might want to achieve these things. I understand the...
1 tag
What's next for Windows 8 PCs?
Microsoft is really undergoing a major overhaul over the past few years. Bill Gates’ departure from daily involvement, the exasperation around the Vista release, the iPhone etc. were all big events that forced the company to reevaluate how it does business. Thankfully, Microsoft has had a decent long-term plan in place for a while now, and Ballmer is keen to move the company to the half-way...
1 tag
Removing add-ons from Internet Explorer
With the so-called leak of IE9’s UI (incredibly old screenshots from between Platform Preview 1 & 2), I saw a lot of comments on the IE Blog and elsewhere about how the add-ons manager UI & add-on framework in general needed some updates. The IE team seems adamant not to change the framework itself, but said nothing about possible UI changes.
The reason I was concerned enough to...
July 2010
2 posts
tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?
3 tags
YAML 3.0
I’ve outdone myself this time. Major thanks to my peeps: 1. New casual web gaming portal is in the works. 2. Natal IP in new genre in dev at MGS. Will have WP7 & SL counterparts. 3. A team is extending Natal core to client & phone. Targeting v8 for hw. 4. Cross-branding of GfW on client in v8. 5. Major MGS franchise title in late stages of dev for WP7. 6. Marketplace is...
May 2010
1 post
1 tag
Courier
I didn’t want to post about this, because everyone who is anyone has posted about it. I really dislike posting rehashes of other people’s work when they have done an excellent job with their write-up. Plus, I was growing a bit tired of only doing tips and rumors on Twitter (much respect, Twitter, I have grown to respect you and my fellow tweeters). I like to do analysis and...
April 2010
1 post
3 tags
WP7, IE9 & WMC Extenders
Some blurbs about the near future of Windows Phone 7, Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Media Center Extenders 3.0: Q. WP7 database support? A. Implement WCF to retrieve data. Build in-memory databases, query with LINQ and save data to Isolated Storage to ensure that apps keep working when the connection drops. Q. WP7 enterprise deployment? A. Management capability on phones coming early 2011,...
February 2010
0 posts
1 tag
I Have A Dream...
Here’s what I hoping for from the next gen of slate PCs:
OS: Windows 8 Processor: Intel ULV Graphics: Nvidia Optimus Memory: DDR3 4GB Storage: SSD 64GB Display: 11.6 inch IPS Digitizer: Stantum or N-trig Sensors: light, accelerometer & GPS Network: 802.11n + Bluetooth Ports: USB 3.0, HDMI Battery: 8 hours on average Weight: 2.5 lbs Misc: chiclet back-lit keyboard dock with...
January 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Specs for New WinMo 7 Phones?
This 3-slide set was recently sent my way by a new tipster. He/she did not mention anything about where these originated, when they were made, who was responsible etc. There was also no indication as to whether they were part of a larger set and who the targeted audience might be. The only relevant information was that the HTC HD2, Toshiba TG01 and LG eXpo were being negotiated for upgrade. We...
December 2009
1 post
2 tags
A quick look at visitor demographics
I went through the Google Analytics data for my blog today. Really, really went through it. I think I found some things that might prove of interest to someone somewhere. Now, keep in mind that my blog is teeny-tiny when compared to some of the big guns out there. Plus, I make no ad-money (intentionally). Plus, my content is Microsoft-centric. So, make what you will of the following: Long Zheng...
November 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Cloudy Days Ahead
Midori, Midori, Midori what the hell is Midori? Let’s get the basics down first: 1. Smoothly scalable, concurrent use of any “available” processing hardware. 2. Near-instantaneous data synchronization platform. 3. Built-in application virtualization, by fully abstracting hardware resources. 4. Seamless storage pooling between “the cloud”, on-premise servers,...
2 tags
"Connectify" your Windows 7 PC for free
Update: Check out Virtual Router at Codeplex for a free and simple solution. So, I like where these guys are going, and the fact that they seem to have made the process dead simple, but being the true tinkerer/lifehacker that I am, I decided to investigate a little and found out how to do it myself. If you don’t want to go through all this trouble, just pay them whatever they will charge...
October 2009
2 posts
4 tags
Updates on Zune/Pink/WinMo7
Quoting myself from the previous post to draw attention to what’s changed:
Zune … is coming to Xbox first, but that is followed immediately by WinMo, later by Media Center and eventually Windows Live. … adds on XNA capabilities. The new Windows Mobile 7 is built on top of Windows Embedded CE 6… …here’s the takeaway: 6. Windows Phone devices with...
2 tags
Project Pink, Windows Mobile 7 & Zune
For those of you unfamiliar with the story around Project Pink, I highly recommend going through the posts at MobileTechWorld about it before reading further. He links to a bunch of “news” about Pink at other sites as well, and instead of linking to each of them here, I’ll just leave it up to you, dear reader, to follow through on anything that might interest you. However, I do...
September 2009
4 posts
1 tag
1UP for my tx2
Thank you HP, thank you. Despite your being a total-a.hole as far as not granting me an OS refund is concerned (more on that later), you have partially redeemed yourself today. You see, dear readers, Engadget Spanish found a marketing newsletter sent by HP that has a few important details among new product announcements. Namely, my HP TouchSmart tx2 convertible tablet that I bought this July is...
1 tag
Future of Skydrive & "Live Flix" ?!
Just a quick recap of tweets tweeted on Monday, August 31 regarding this: “Flix” is not intended to compete with YouTube. Will offer granular sharing controls a la WL Photos. Meant for family-sharing etc. Will be powered by Silverlight, and surfaced under the Windows Live Photos brand, WLMM plugin coming soon. CSP is @Skydrive for all this of course and Skydrive is now managed over a...
1 tag
my Zune tweets recapped
Thu Sep 24 Zune optional for non-“Pink” 6.5 handsets, WinMo7 lights up WinCE’s new Silverlight functionality. Zune OOB SL app coming to Mac real soon now tablet info is out, next up is “Zune everywhere” followed by Pink (wonder what else has this color in its branding), then Natal. Tue Sep 15 #tip OS X Zune softwarecoming (but not soon), Silverlight + WebKit...
1 tag
I'm hosting a Windows 7 launch party
Here’s what I’ll get: Party Package: -One limited Signature Edition Windows 7 Ultimate -One Deck of Playing Cards with Windows 7 Desktop Design -One Puzzle with Windows 7 Desktop Design -One Poster with Windows 7 Desktop Design -Ten Tote Bags with Windows 7 Desktop Design for hosts and guests -One table top centerpiece for decoration -One package of Windows 7 napkins -One...
August 2009
2 posts
3 tags
909-1h
The meaning behind the mysterious number in the file properties of the document containing the leaked information …… (breathe a little, long sentence that)……. is revealed! Home Server & DirectX 11 (not necessarily related) announcements coming in the first half of September. (and this second part was originally going to be the big breaking one, but its already all...
3 tags
Re: YAML post comments
I started typing into the comments box of my previous post to answer readers’ questions to the best of my ability, but the form wouldn’t let me type beyond a certain length. So, here’s another post. I have no idea how the final branding of each product/service will pan out. So, Office Live could be a project name or a product name, and it could very well be offered through...
July 2009
3 posts
4 tags
Yet Another (possible) Microsoft Leak
The same source that snuck the “Project Omni” tip over, has come with another bag of goodies. Only this time, the purported document outlines Microsoft’s long-term plans for its consumer-facing Live services, and how it intends to tie them in to rich clients on PCs & phones. The relevant portions of the document are quoted below. While the names used for the services or apps...
1 tag
Project "Omni"
Microsoft’s new streaming music service, codenamed “Omni”, is based on the Seeqpod engine integrated with Bing search & Live ID. It is a Silverlight RIA on Zune, WinMo, Xbox, Mac & PC. It’s tied into Zune store to facilitate purchases. Revenue comes from sales through the Zune store & ads (one 10-second spot every half-hour, approved by MSFT) during streaming....
2 tags
Why Microsoft Killed Windows 7 E
Contrary to what a majority of tech pundits have been assuming, Microsoft did not kill Windows 7 E because they had to comply with the EU’s rules. This was a conscious decision to take preemptive action by Microsoft. What does that mean? Microsoft is moving slowly but surely to a services (Microsoft-hosted) model. Web browsers consititute the lowest common denominator in terms of...