MOBODOJO » Microsoft News

Tips & Tricks For Windows 7 Beta

Tyler Regas — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:25:05 +0000

Tim Sneath, Microsoft’s Director of Windows and Silverlight technical evangelism, has posted a seriously complete list of Windows 7 secrets, tips, and tricks. It covers a range of things which are new to Win7, including the ridiculously new taskbar (hint: it actually works well now). One tip didn’t work out for me, though. Tim describes that the installation includes location-aware wallpaper, and Windows decides which set to install based on the country you enter. The rest of the countries are supposed to be stored in a hidden folder, but I didn’t find them. The rest of the stuff is cool, though.

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Xbox 360 Arcade Gets Memory Bump

Tyler Regas — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:03:44 +0000

The news on the street is that Microsoft has confirmed that the new Xbox 360 Arcade units now shipping have gotten a RAM bump to 256MBs. This fixes an internal storage issue which has been plaguing owners to the point where Microsoft was giving out free external upgrades. You can go look at the site, but its down for maintenance. I doubt that this is an Apple Store variety “down for maintenance”, but you never know.

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Microsoft Outs Mobile IE6 Emulator

Tyler Regas — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:53:48 +0000

Microsoft has not been on the top of the mobile web browser heap ever, so it doesn’t know what its like to be there. The only thing they know is what others have done and succeeded at, like Apple’s Mobile Safari and even Palm’s Blazer and the upcoming 3rd party SkyFire. So, IE6 for WinMo 6.5 (maybe) looks and works like these, possibly. I can’t say for sure since I’m in Mac OS X and don’t want to reboot right now just to find out for myself. Of course, if you have a Windows box, you can download the emulator yourself and give it a try. Be sure to let me know what you think.

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Windows Viral Threats Increasing

Tyler Regas — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:43:48 +0000

Surprise, surprise. Windows is a sieve and either the holes are getting larger or the malware authors are getting smarter. Regardless of which, Microsoft itself is reporting that it has witnessed an increase of 13% in the number of malware objects which its own anti-malware tool has been removing. El Reg indicates some solidarity with Microsoft by suggesting that by judicious use of firewalls and patching Windows can be as safe as Mac OS X or Linux. My position questions why anyone would want to have to work that hard when an easier, better, safer, and more reliable pair of OSen are available. Me, I’ll stick with Apple which, by the way, is also seeing a steady increase… in sales.

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Microsoft Details Win7, NetBooks, Office Online

Tyler Regas — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:40:45 +0000

Microsoft released a lot of details about various items its working on today at their Professional Developers Conference show. The big news was Windows 7 itself where they detailed a wide range of updated features and changes from how Vista works (or doesn’t, depending on which side of the fence you’re on). Steve Sinofsky also demonstrated Windows 7 running on a 1GHz netbook and reports indicate that it was pretty snappy and quite a bit thinner than its bloated cousin, Vista.

Microsoft didn’t stop at that, either. Some information was made official regarding MS’ plans to start offering an online version of its Office suite. The general idea is apparently to step into the space already occupied by Google and other online services while still offering the larger, more cumbersome, very expensive desktop version of the applications. Targetted applications are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote in both ad-supported and premium paid editions. As expected, Office Live will reside on Windows Live. woot.

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Ballmer Pimps Zune On WinMo

Tyler Regas — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:50:06 +0000

Had you come to the conclusion that the Microsoft Zune was less useful than a doorstop since its not heavy enough to hold open a door? Apparently Microsoft CEO extraordinaire Steve “Pointless Market Insertion” Ballmer thinks we haven’t seen enough of the Zune. Ballmer thinks that the Zune code, which could hold open a door if printed out on paper, will be an even greater hit by making it available on WinMo devices. Wow. If the Redmond Giant can see good in 2 million Zunes sold in two years when Apple vends three times that of iPods in one quarter, more power to them.

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Microsoft’s VEDa Concept Hit By Ugly Stick

Tyler Regas — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:57:57 +0000

Redmond’s experimental designs department must be on vacation. Microsoft’s new VEDa concept, unveiled in a recently discovered patent application from Microsoft, looks more like a VHS tape crossed with a really old top loading cassette deck which is sitting on top of a lappy. I doubt that’s what Microsoft had in mind, however. One part of the rather lengthy discussion of the “technology” describes how the Start menu would contain tasks instead of the names of actual applications. An example, it seems, would be Web Browsing instead of Internet Exploder. Of course, how any of this justifies a patent is completely beyond me. All of the elements described are already in use in one form or another, and Microsoft can modify how their Start menu works any time they please.

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Windows 7 Is Microsoft Surface… Deal.

Tyler Regas — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:11:58 +0000

Whee! If there was anything at all which could top the overall badness of Windows Vista and seal the deal for the end of Microsoft as a world dominating powerhouse, its Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates showing that Windows 7 will be nothing more than Microsoft’s Surface UI grafted on top of Vista’s diseased core. If you aren’t clear on what Surface is, just think a really big, really heavy iPhone which you can only use as a tabletop. Sure, it features the blatantly copied groundbreaking multitouch interface which allows images to be moved about and resized willy-nilly. You can read all about it at Gizmodo. Gee, I hope I can wait until Windows 7 comes out! It’ll be so neat. I can have a Mac and then next to it, see, I’ll have another Mac, but it won’t be a Mac. Yeah!

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Zune Breaks 2 Million Sales Mark

Tyler Regas — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:06:35 +0000

2 years. 2 million. Yeah. Apple sold 10.6 million iPods last quarter. Way to catch up, Microsoft!

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What Laptop Does Steve Ballmer Use?

Tyler Regas — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:57:43 +0000

I thought this was far from an interesting question when I first saw it on Digg, but soon came to realize that it was anything but mundane. Here, then, is your picture-based answer:

I have to say that I’m not surprised at this. A significant number of reviewers have stated that the Apple MacBook Pro is, hands down, the best lappy for Windows Vista. What I wonder is how often does Steve really spend on the Mac OS X side.