Items tagged with Microsoft
If you can't beat 'em, say it was your idea all along. Microsoft has said that the Kinect hacking which allows the Kinect to be used with other devices besides the Xbox 360, wasn't really hacking, and that they left the Kinect open by design. At least, that's what Microsoft said on NPR's...
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It's hard to believe, but Microsoft Windows is 25 years old. Windows 1.0 was birthed on November 20, 1985. Born as a replacement for MS-DOS, Windows was GUI-based, mouse- (and keyboard-) driven, and added multitasking as well. It wasn't until Windows 3.0, however, that Windows really started to take off. Honestly, much of that was because...
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Welcome to the inaugural episode of “Two and a Half Geeks”, our re-vamped, weekly video podcast. In addition to our new look (which is still being tweaked!), in this episode we talk about the performance of AMD’s upcoming Zacate APU and Woz’s “quote” that...
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The annals of history are filled with the wreckage of gaming consoles, their darkling masoleums* lit only dimly in the candle of nostalgia. The barriers to entry are such that even being in the right place at the right time is insufficient; would-be contenders must achieve both of these...
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Adafruit, the folks behind the bounty for an open-source Kinect driver, one that would allow end users to use the Kinect with more than just the Xbox 360, have posted a how-to guide. It should be noted, however: it's not exactly drop-dead simple. The guide comes via an Adafruit employee with the handle Ladyada. You can see, in a video...
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A million. That's a lot. A whole lot when you consider just how crowded the gaming market it, and even more when you consider just how limited the Kinect is in terms of a buyer pool. The Kinect motion accessory requires a good deal of space in front of the television, and many gamers who are...
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Windows Phone 7 devices support additional storage via MicroSD but making use of that capability has become problematic. Users who attempt to re-use MicroSD cards they purchased for older phones are in for a nasty surprise. Insert a legacy MicroSD into a Samsung Focus, and the device may...
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Verizon is going to be resurrecting the months-dead KIN One and KIN Two, it appears. Despite the fact that it seems like a truly silly decision, based on the (not even) lukewarm response to the phones, that's what a Verizon roadmap seems to show. First coming from PPCGeeks, it seemed somewhat questionable news, particularly since the...
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Ever heard of Microsoft's Xbox 360? It's a gaming console, right? Well, maybe. Maybe not! The console definitely started out as a game console when it originally launched, offering up far superior graphics compared to the Nintendo Wii and catering to more hardcore gamers. But soon after came...
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Call of Duty: Black Ops is easily the hottest game out right now, shattering sales records and likely being the true cause a bunch of "sick days" this week. And if you've already worn your existing Xbox 360 controller out in playing it...
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There's definitely stiff competition in the smartphone market today. Needless to say, Microsoft has a lot of barriers to overcome if it intends to regain market share with its smartphone OS. On Monday, Microsoft officially launched its Windows Phone 7 platform with nine handsets available...
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And the lawsuits keep flying. Lately, a lot of companies wrapped up in the creation of Android phones have been suing one another, suggesting that someone was stealing someone else's intellectual property. Now, Motorola is suing Microsoft...
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Windows Phone 7 just launched in America this month, and already the app store is growing in impressive fashion. All of the regular apps are already onboard, but now a few "killer apps" are beginning to take shape. U-verse and Microsoft have retained a close relationship over the years, with...
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Windows Phone 7 devices began to hit retail stores in America this week, and we suspect that the flood of applications will follow shortly. Just as the Apple App Store and Android Market blossomed shortly after phones began to fall into the hands of end-users, the Windows Phone 7 app store...
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This week, a new mobile OS launches in the U.S. market. It's a competitive field already, with Android, iOS and BlackBerry OS fighting for position in the smartphone arena. But Microsoft once dominated here with Windows Mobile, and they aren't planning on giving up without a fight. Windows...
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Only a few days after the public release of Kinect, the Xbox 360 add-on has already been hacked. It just goes to show that the hacking community can do just about anything when it puts its mind to it (Apple already knows this). In this case the impetus for hacking comes as a $2,000 bounty...
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Kinect. It's here! Sales of Microsoft's own motion sensing gaming accessory for their Xbox 360 went on sale this week in North America, offering 360 owners the chance to control select titles with just the movements of their body. Microsoft is hoping that this approach will be more appealing...
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Microsoft's Kinect (formerly Project Natal) motion control system launches today into a market that's just recently seen the debut of the PlayStation Move. Prior to now, there's been some discussion of whether or not the XBox 360's CPU could handle both Kinect and the demands of modern games;...
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Most of you probably have no desire to turn back the clock and get your Web surfing groove on with IE6, but consider all those enterprise users who developed apps to work with Microsoft's non-standard browser. The sad reality is Microsoft...
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The start of November marks a lot of things, but for Xbox owners, it marks the start of a new Dashboard era. The company's newest Dashboard was announced, along with its new features, months back, with some of them teased as far back as E3...
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Google has sued the U.S. government, specifically, the Department of the Interior, over a Request for Quotation (RFQ) that only considered bidders that offered Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite. Google said the requirement was "unduly restrictive of competition." The complaint...
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Microsoft's clearly interested in motion sensing. The Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360 is proof of that. But things may not be stopping in the gaming world. It's clear that user interfaces are changing. Apple has already introduced a Magic...
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