Items tagged with Microsoft
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Michael Santo - Tue, Jan 04, 2011
Apple has been eying Exxon Mobil's market cap since the Cupertino, CA-based company passed Microsoft last year to become the world's most valuable tech stock and the world's second most valuable company. On Monday, the first day of trading...
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Michael Santo - Wed, Dec 29, 2010
A sweet gaming system might include the ability to immerse yourself in a gaming world and fight, cast spells, whatever, by making the motions that you would need if you were actually part of the game. This Kinect hack doesn't go quite that far, but we can dream, can't we? Built by the USC...
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Joel Hruska - Tue, Dec 28, 2010
Tablets and mobile devices are central to Microsoft's plans for CES 2011. In addition to its demo of an early Windows 8 build running on ARM CPUs, the software giant will be demonstrating a number of tablets running Windows 7. If this sounds familiar it's because Microsoft did much the same...
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Ray Willington - Mon, Dec 27, 2010
Is it really coming to an end this time? Microsoft's Windows 7 Family Pack has been a rather hot seller, if not a very popular talking topic, ever since it was introduced. $150 nabs three licenses for Windows 7 Home Premium, and considering that many homes now have numerous PCs laying around...
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Joel Hruska - Mon, Dec 27, 2010
One of the big announcements at CES this year will be from Microsoft; the company plans to announce (and possibly demonstrate) a consumer-centric version of Windows running on ARM processors. The company's decision is a powerful endorsement. Other Microsoft products like Windows Embedded...
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Michael Santo - Sat, Dec 25, 2010
People are using the Kinect Xbox 360 add-on in ways that transcend the idea of a video console accessory. It was this type of development that was hoped for when a bounty was put out for open source Kinect drivers, and look what the latest possibility is: using Kinect to help people learn American Sign Language. >Researchers at Georgia...
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Ray Willington - Thu, Dec 23, 2010
Well that didn't take long! A month after Rahul Sood resigned his post at HP, he has now found a home at a rival company: Microsoft. Rahul Sood is a major figure in the PC gaming world. He founded VoodooPC, which was then swallowed up by HP and woven into the "Envy" line of computers. But HP never really felt like a great fit for Sood, at...
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Ray Willington - Wed, Dec 22, 2010
Well, at least Microsoft has spoken. They haven't said an awful lot that we didn't already expect, but it's something. Despite the fact that Windows Phone 7 went on sale to consumers weeks ago, Microsoft has yet to come forward with any...
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Paul Lilly - Mon, Dec 20, 2010
Ruh roh, Shaggy. It appears a recent update for Outlook 2007 wasn't quite ready for prime time, causing all sorts of connection and performance problems for those who tried to install it. It was issued as part of the monthly Patch Tuesday...
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Michael Santo - Mon, Dec 20, 2010
Microsoft's Office Genuine Advantage program (OGA), is no more. Reportedly, Microsoft has quietly retired the program, which formerly was used to validate an Office installation before add=ins or templates could be downloaded, without...
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Ray Willington - Sun, Dec 19, 2010
Do you watch movies on your phone? We have found the answers to that question to be fairly mixed, with some people saying that it just gets too cramped over time, and others really enjoying the portability. But there's no question that...
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Michael Santo - Fri, Dec 10, 2010
Google has turned its Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts into a backup system for your Microsoft Exchange data. Called Google Message Continuity, the service is meant not just to back up, but to sync in real-time your Exchange data on Google's...
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David Altavilla - Thu, Dec 09, 2010
HTC let fly with their Windows Phone 7 lineup a month or so ago but to date we haven't gotten much in the way of hands-on time with the devices. Monday night in NYC, home of yet another disappointed New York Jets team (Go Pats), we got a little up close and personal with HTC's sexy new...
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Jennifer Johnson - Sat, Dec 04, 2010
Microsoft introduced its free Xbox Live Rewards program to give loyal customers recognition and rewards for using Xbox Live. Members of the program will earn Microsoft Points—the same currency used by Xbox Live—when they use the service to renew a membership, activate Netflix, purchase merchandise, and more. According to Larry...
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Ray Willington - Wed, Dec 01, 2010
No one actually doubted that motion gaming was popular. Nintendo sold through tons of Wii consoles, and for over year there was a consumer shortage. In fact, the movement was so noticeable that both Sony and Microsoft decided to embark on a journey of their own to embrace motion gaming. Sony...
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Michael Santo - Tue, Nov 23, 2010
Ah, the more users play with Kinect, now that there is an open source driver, the better things become. Here we see a Jedi Knight in training who has used the OpenKinect drivers and OpenCV to make himself into a Jedi Academy cadet. Here's what he said on his YouTube post: Proof of concept of tracking and rendering a lightsaber in real time...
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Michael Santo - Mon, Nov 22, 2010
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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Michael Santo - Sat, Nov 20, 2010
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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Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Nov 19, 2010
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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Joel Hruska - Thu, Nov 18, 2010
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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Michael Santo - Thu, Nov 18, 2010
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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Ray Willington - Wed, Nov 17, 2010
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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