After going through a period of public beta testing, Microsoft has started to officially rollout the planned changes to their Xbox LIVE service. As is usually the case with large scale changes like the ones being pushed to the LIVE service, the updates will be gradual and will start to be noticeable to different members in different territories over the next seven days.
We all remember when Microsoft held a rather mysterious event that brought us the initial announcement and showcasing of the gorgeous looking Surface tablet. Microsoft managed to create something that we couldn't wait to get our hands on and try out, but unfortunately, the lines of communication seemed to stop with more information only recently starting to surface thanks to the looming launch date of the hardware. As part of the run-up to the official release on October 26th, the first Microsoft Surface TV advertisement has landed on the web, and to accompany the rather awesome looking ad; Microsoft (by accident we’re assuming) has slipped out the official pricing points of the Surface RT tablet.
The big release of Windows 8 and its many, many affiliated products and services is drawing strikingly close, and with tidbits of info arriving straight from the Redmond-based horse's mouth on an almost daily basis, Microsoft has today updated the world on the ins and outs of Xbox Music.
Microsoft seems to be getting pretty good at producing video commercials that make their products stand out from the rest. I'm pretty sure we have all seem the wonderful TV commercial for Internet Explorer that makes us actually want to give IE a second chance. Apart from that, we also recently saw the first Windows 8 ad going live that introduces us to the OS.
An understandably disillusioned Microsoft have confirmed that they are aware of the possible leak of the Halo 4 Xbox console game and are currently in the process of working in an attempt to get to the bottom of how the slip occurred. The latest iteration of the phenomenally popular Halo franchise is slated for a worldwide release during the first week of November but it seems that the Redmond based company couldn't keep a tight lock on the game any longer.
When it comes to mobile apps, we are used to large companies being way behind the game and playing by their own rules in terms of releasing updates and software to support new firmware, platforms and device specifications. You can forgive the lax attitude from indie developers who may not have as many resources to throw into development as large organizations have, but you would kind of expect the bigger companies to update their apps ahead of time. We definitely can't put Netflix in that bracket as they have already launched their Windows 8 compatible app ahead of time.
Microsoft has taken the opportunity to announce that the development phase of Office 2013 is complete and the engineering teams involved have signed off the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of the suite. Now that the coding, design and development phases of the process are complete; the main focus of the Redmond company is to now concentrate on releasing the new build of Office to consumer and business customers via selected channels.
You are all familiar with Microsoft's Zune Music Pass, right? No? Well actually, you aren't the only one who may not be that au fait with the Redmond offering, but that shouldn't really cause you much concern as the subscription service that allows unlimited music streaming/downloading is being cast into the wilderness - at least in some regions. The time of Zune has been and gone and with the Xbox Music service on the horizon, it seems a little strange that the Zune Music Pass is arriving in some new territories as we speak.
Microsoft is going through an extremely busy schedule at the minute with their next major release of Windows about to hit the marketplace on October 26th, as well as their much-anticipated Surface tablet slated for a first public outing on the same day. The old saying of there's no rest for the wicked definitely applies here, as it turns out that the Redmond-based software giants are also hard at work on producing mobile versions of the Office suite for iOS and Android users.
The Windows 8 advertising campaign is like London buses at the minute; you wait patiently to see what Microsoft will launch to promote their new software only to find that four different video-based adverts have leaked at the same time. Only a couple of weeks are left until Windows 8 officially drops for the masses, and while the technology elite know a lot about the gorgeous new OS thanks to pre-release versions and keeping on top of the news, the general public may be non-the-wiser about what Microsoft is bringing with this latest offering.
