Nokia's Lumia 900 represents the pinnacle of the company's new smartphone strategy, pairing premium components with a unique design and Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. In our full review, we try to determine if the LTE radio, large display and other high-end features will help Nokia and Microsoft fulfill their dream of finally reestablishing themselves in the US smartphone market.
Motorola's patent demands and conduct were condemned by a judge overseeing a preliminary ITC ruling against Microsoft. Administrative Law Judge David Shaw wrote an initial determination, entering public records in a redacted state last week, stating that assurances on reasonable licensing of standards-essential patents "were misleading."
Microsoft will soon begin offering a promotion to buyers of Windows 7 PCs that will allow them to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $15, WinSuperSite reported. The special offering will kick off on June 2, with the idea being to 'future-proof' computers and motivate buyers who may otherwise hold off on a new purchase as they await the latest software to come out. In previous, similar promotions, however, Microsoft offered equivalent versions of the software to the one they've purchased, but this time it seems to be upgrading them to the Pro version.
Microsoft has joined with a Russian startup in an effort to crack down on online copyright infringement. The resulting partnership could prove a boon for Hollywood, which has long sought to curtail illegal filesharing on the Web. Pirate Pay, as the startup calls itself, may be the answer to copyright holders' prayers, as it targets torrents directly and takes them down.
The Mozilla Foundation, maker of the Firefox web browser, is calling out Microsoft for anticompetitive practices with regard to browser capabilities on the upcoming Windows RT. In a blog post, Mozilla's General Counsel Harvey Anderson takes Microsoft to task for programming decisions that will limit the power and feature set of non-Internet Explorer browsers in the next version of Windows.
On April 20, Microsoft fired the most recent shot in its legal skirmish with Motorola in German court in regards to a series of patent enforcement suits preventing Microsoft (amongst others) from using push notifications. In response to the new MS filing, on Friday morning Mannheim Regional Court Judge Andreas Voss said that his court is not prepared to rule on Motorola's complaint versus Microsoft in regards to push notifications from the Hotmail service. A new trial is expected.
Microsoft has joined the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium. Fronted by Micron, Samsung, and IBM, the HMCC aims to create more efficient memory for high-performance computing and other similar applications, using increased bandwidth compared to what current memory architectures can provide.
Microsoft has starting pushing security updates for the 2008 and 2011 versions of Microsoft Office for Mac, including an "important" security fix for six vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution, even on affected Macs. On the Windows side, the problems stretch back all the way to Microsoft Excel 2003, but for Macs only the two most recent versions of Office are affected. The fix is available through the Microsoft Updater.
Microsoft is preparing an addition to its Kinect accessory for the Xbox 360 that will track a user's exercises across multiple Kinect games, The Verge learned from its sources. Called Play Fit, it will upload numbers to online storage and thereby be accessible from anywhere. A new hardware accessory will be made available as well, dubbed so far as the Joule.
The previously speculated Xbox 360 bundle deal from Microsoft has been confirmed to exist. A voucher for the bundle has appeared on the Microsoft Store website, showing a 4GB Xbox 360 complete with Kinect for $99 and a two-year, $15-per-month Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Dane-Elec unveiled the first products in the Pro Sport USB3 line today. The red 8GB, 16GB blue, and 32GB black USB3 flash drives will be available on Amazon in late May. The Pro Sport flash drive boasts speeds up to 80MB/sec read and 30MB/sec write when plugged into a USB3 host connection.
Researchers at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario have developed a hologram-like teleconferencing model that uses Microsoft's Kinect system to enable live, 3D teleconferencing. In a manner reminiscent of Star Wars' hologram messages, users are able to get a three-dimensional view of their conferencing partner.
On its Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft revealed that its Windows 8 operating system won't play back DVD movies, unless the optional Media Center pack is purchased. The reason is the added royalties needed to pay for the specialized decoders and the cost of hardware to enable this. Microsoft also justified the decision by throwing out numbers that showed a sharp decline in DVD movie sales and broadcast TV consumption. Last year, Microsoft revealed only about 6 percent of users utilized Media Center.
Dolby and Microsoft are partnering to bring Dolby Digital Plus' audio technology to Windows 8 tablets and PCs. The addition of Dolby Digital Plus will allow Windows 8 devices to play Dolby-encoded content. Microsoft has used Dolby encoding since Windows Vista shipped in 2007, but Dolby in 2008 raised the possibility that Windows 8 might not feature Dolby technology.
Microsoft has reportedly hired more than a dozen former Yahoo employees to help establish a new research lab located in New York City. The team is said to include algorithmic economist David Pennock, along with machine-learning specialist John Langford, among others.
Microsoft's official Windows 8 developers shed light on their plan to "reimagine" Windows Live services, which will be rebranded for the upcoming OS. Chris Jones, VP of the Windows Live group, wrote that Windows 8 will provide the company with the opportunity to “design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience.”
Microsoft has rolled out a redesign of the search results page for its Bing search engine. Users will now find a less-cluttered results page, bordering on minimalist and dominated by open space.
Microsoft is reportedly preparing to offer a $99 Xbox 360 bundle that will include the Kinect sensor, subsidizing the upfront cost and tying buyers to a two-year subscription. Unnamed sources have told The Verge the company will require an agreement that works like a cellphone contract, requiring buyers to pay a termination fee to cease monthly payments before the end of the term.
Motorola has landed a significant blow against Microsoft in Germany after persuading the Mannheim Regional Court to issue an injunction against the sale of the Xbox 360 and Windows 7. Judge Holger Kircher ruled that Microsoft had violated two Motorola patents, one pertaining to H.264 video-compression and the other related to wireless internet connection. However, the bans are subject to appeal and are not likely to be pursued by Motorola initially, the result of several complicating factors according to FOSS Patents.
Rumors of the demise of LG's Windows Phone 7 line of handsets appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Today, the Korean handset maker, in an interview with Pocket-lint, reaffirmed its commitment to Microsoft's current phone platform, walking back on some statements that appeared in the press yesterday.
Microsoft is taking a harder stance against app developers violating the rules in its Windows Phone Marketplace. In a recent blog post, the Windows Phone team spells out new changes to developer and app policies aimed at cutting down on copyright infringement and clutter in the app store.
Microsoft in a statement Monday clung to a firm stance on the proposed CISPA bill. The firm told The Hill that, despite having said it wanted to "honor the privacy" of users, it wanted the bill to continue forward. It would "look forward" to working with the Senate on the bill.
NUI Group forum member Bastian has created a touch table that uses a projector and Microsoft's Kinect sensor to make it appear as if a user is touching objects floating in space. According to Hackaday, there are also four infrared laser involved to track the hand, making for an effect of a 3D holographic display. Kinect tracks the user's head in relation to the table, allowing the projector to adjust the image accordingly.
Technology companies, including Microsoft and Apple, are being asked by the Australian government to explain why prices of downloadable content in that country are higher than in the US. The parliamentary inquiry is hoped by some parties to lower the prices of digital goods in the region, as regulators have deemed the existing explanations to be insufficient.
LG isn't looking to produce another Windows Phone in the near future, a spokesman said Monday. While there would still be development, the representative wanted to minimize expectations of anything imminent when asked by the Korea Herald. The Microsoft platform's low market share was put at fault as likely making it difficult to justify going beyond Android.
Barnes & Noble and Microsoft on Monday settled an Android patent dispute through a union. An e-reading partnership, Newco, will see Microsoft take a $300 million, or 17.6 percent, stake in a project that should merge Barnes & Noble's Nook business and its college division. In return for the funding, Barnes & Noble will make a Nook app for Windows 8 to help foster textbooks on future Microsoft-powered tablets.
A recent Lenovo investment, Eedoo, is drawing criticism for the upcoming launch of China's first mainstream motion gaming system, the CT510. Pitched as a family entertainment system, the system is conspicuously like Microsoft's Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360 but is intended more as a general device with HD movie playback, karaoke, and motion-driven exercise apps. At $600, however, it costs more than the $399 US price of Microsoft's most advanced Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle.
Habitual smartphone experimenter Steve Wozniak in a podcast (embedded below) gave strong compliments to Windows Phone. Having picked up a Lumia 900 weeks earlier, the Apple co-founder still picked the iPhone as his favorite but argued to aNewDomain that Windows Phone was better than any Android phone. It had the "most beautiful" visual experience of any platform, Wozniak said, and its presentation made him feel like he was "with a friend, not a tool."
Apple had considered one of three core ideas for the iPhone, one of which included a hardware keyboard, former Apple executive and now Nest founder Tony Fadell revealed Friday. Speaking in an evening session with The Verge, he mentioned that the all-touch design that eventually shipped first had come after he wanted to try a virtual keyboard before resorting to the hardware option. The key iPod architect had understood the potential of an on-screen keyboard, which has infinite customization and can disappear when not needed, but didn't rule out physical keys at first.
Microsoft has published a new white paper (pdf) on its Microsoft Research site detailing how its HomeOS would work to make home-automation a reality. To explain its concept, Microsoft’s researchers frame the HomeOS as being a ‘PC-like abstraction’ for in-home devices. In this paradigm, consoles, routers, PCs, printers, smartphones, air conditioners and light, for example, would all appear to the HomeOS as peripherals connected to a central interface.
Foxconn saw a return to protests Friday after about 200 workers in the central China city of Wuhan threatened to jump off a roof in protest over working conditions. The details relayed to Reuters from the Information Centre for Human Rights framed the dispute as one over "workplace adjustments" for newcomers. One concern had been sub-par wages.
Both the look and the release date for the Xbox 360 Celebration Pack were briefly visible online today, as Amazon.co.uk accidentally posted the information online. VideoGamer.com discovered the online leak, now removed, which revealed a Union Jack-skinned console, Kinect sensor, and controller.
Microsoft has posted a new version of Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 2, listed as v14.2.1. The update can be installed by all Office for Mac users, but is mainly designed to replace a problematic earlier version of the Service Pack, which caused Outlook database corruption problems. Microsoft was forced to pull the patch from AutoUpdate.
A new report from the New York Times delving deeper into the Facebook buy of patents from Microsoft reveals that Microsoft at one point considered selling its Bing search engine to the social network. There is speculation in the industry that Facebook wants to start its own Internet search engine fed by the data it gathered from its millions of users in order to make money from online advertising. This would be a threat to Google more so than Microsoft, as the former is more dependent on such revenue.
Pegatron on Wednesday became the latest company to reach a patent deal in Microsoft's Android licensing campaign. In a boilerplate statement, Microsoft said Pegatron would pay a royalty on every Android or Chrome OS device it manufactured. The two kept up Microsoft's typical request that the terms of the deal not be made public.
Microsoft's restarted music plans will see them escape the platform and feature limits of the Zune Music Marketplace, according to new leaks. Tipsters for The Verge had the service, codenamed Woodstock, being available not just to Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox users, but Android and iOS as well. It would also be playable on the web, although without needing a plugin.
Should rumors prove accurate, Microsoft will soon have a new OEM partner offering Windows Phone 8 handsets and Windows 8 tablet products. Chinese smartphone giant Huawei is reportedly looking to debut new phones and tablets running Microsoft's upcoming system by the end of the year.
Microsoft in an update instituted two major changes in how Windows Phone owners would get apps. It was now planning to pull the Windows Phone Marketplace option from the Zune desktop app on Windows PCs. Customers now had to either browse the web store, and push apps to their device, or else shop directly from the phone.
Apple CEO Tim Cook during his company's fiscal Q2 results call slammed the idea of merging touchscreens and ultrabooks. When asked by Sanford Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi why Apple wouldn't merge the iPad and MacBook Air like Intel and Microsoft wanted Windows 8 and ultrabooks to unite, he described it as a matter of inherent tradeoffs. Trying to appeal to everyone ended up pleasing no one, Cook said, saying that just having the option of converging doesn't mean it should be forced.
Facebook's Initial Public Offering (IPO), believed to be scheduled for May, could be delayed, insiders have revealed to CNBC. This is reportedly due to a number of acquisitions and other distractions, which could lead to a delay of selling shares from the originally-believed week of May 14. Initial trading is now expected to come sometime in early to mid-June.
Nokia's emphasis on color for the Lumia 900 may be driving strong sales at the company along with leading to more colors. Both online checks at AT&T and new verifications by CNET on the retail situation have confirmed that, while all examples were in high demand, the cyan and new white versions were "especially difficult to find," according to an AT&T spokesperson. Shipments were going out daily, but AT&T couldn't say when it would have consistent supply.
A new long-term estimate by Forrester Research has painted a strong picture for Apple in the tablet space. It saw Apple keeping its lead even up to 2016, when it saw the iPad having 53 percent of the space. A total of 760 million tablets would ship that year.
Windows division head Steven Sinofsky used a Japanese Developer Days presentation to reveal that a release candidate version of Windows 8 is due in early June. Billing it as a "release preview," he had it shipping just over three months after the Consumer Preview from late February. What if anything would change between builds wasn't mentioned, but it's expected to focus on polish and minor additions.
Smartphones have broken the reign of the traditional Japanese cellphone for the first time, comScore found late Monday. As of February, smartphones were overall more popular than keitais, the often feature-heavy but complicated basic phones that have dominated Japanese use for more than a decade. Local brands like Sharp still led at 23.5 percent, but they were either flat or down slightly as frequently foreign smartphone brands took hold.
Motorola landed a major early victory in its dueling lawsuits with Microsoft on Monday after the International Trade Commission ruled (PDF) that Microsoft had violated four of its patents. The initial findings would effectively ban the Xbox 360 for its use of the H.264 video format, a claim it has leveled against other Microsoft products as well. As a first ruling, it's not automatically in effect and faces a review by a panel, due in August, before it's enforced.
Microsoft quickly confirmed rumors and has posted preview versions of both Windows Vista/7/8 and OS X Lion desktop apps while curbing the reach of its cloud service. The software now lets users more directly organize their cloud storage, automatically syncing anything loaded into a SkyDrive folder and sorting its contents as though it were offline. The iOS app has also been updated (App Store to get native iPad support, including for the higher-resolution visuals of the new iPad along with deleting renaming, and moving files in the cloud.
Facebook is set to buy a large number of patents that Microsoft recently acquired acquire through an AOL auction. The deal, worth $550 million, lets Facebook own 650 AOL patents and patent applications, along with a license to the remainder that Microsoft retains.
Microsoft's SkyDrive desktop app could imminent. A new tip from sources for The Verge had the app coming to Windows 7 users, preceding the Windows 8 version (pictured), in a matter of a few weeks. The web version would get small interface changes to adapt to the Windows 7 app, and would have an option to add a computer by using the software as a hook.
The total mobile user base is significantly less oriented towards Android than phone market share would suggest, according to research. An InMobi study saw iOS extend a slight lead in North America based on ad impressions, going from an 0.6-point lead at 33.1 percent in the fall to a 2.7-point gap at 36.8 percent in the winter. It had Apple, not Google, growing faster for at least the past several months.
Less than a week after Microsoft revamped its SkyDrive cloud storage service, the company has released an update to its SkyDrive mobile app for Windows Phone. Users can now manage permissions for folders, providing access control for individual folders or files. The system takes advantage of the People Hub for quick sharing with contacts.
