Microsoft certainly isn’t the best when it comes to hiding their secrets and upcoming products. We see evidence of this in the past, we’ve seen fully working versions of their unreleased and unannounced products leaked for use for the general public on various websites.
Touch is a now the dominant method of input for mobile devices. Although touchscreen based devices have existed for a long time, they were popularized and made user friendly with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010. In his original iPhone keynote, Steve Jobs categorically stated that if the device requires a stylus, you’re doing something wrong. And we tend to agree with him to some extent, emphasis on extent.
Despite most Apple products being manufactured over in China, the nation is usually behind most other countries when it actually comes to seeing the newest Cupertino device. Some four months since the US and Europe release of the third-generation iPad, the slate has finally hit stores over in China, and unlike the usual frenzied rush, the launch came and went relatively quietly.
While the main source of Microsoft's business stems from its famed software ventures, the company has certainly improved in the hardware stakes. Today, images have leaked onto the web depicting both the Wedge Mobile keyboard and purported Microsoft Wedge Touch mouse, the latter of which is said to accompany the keyboard.
With Windows 8 well and truly on the way, app makers will now be thinking about how their apps will fit around the new infrastructure. Microsoft has the obvious advantage of having built Windows 8 from the ground up, and has offered a preview of its famous OneNote app, called OneNote MX. OneNote only recently made its debut on the iPad, and although perhaps not regarded as important as the likes of PowerPoint, Word, or Excel, still plays an important role in Microsoft's wide variety of productivity-aimed apps.
Following yesterday's official debut of Office 2013 (and the Customer Preview, which is now available for download as we reported yesterday), Microsoft has today followed up with a post that shares more information about Office 2013's role in the cloud as well as its future on the Windows Phone platform.
The popular cross-platform IM app Nimbuzz is now available on the Windows Phone, for the surprisingly low cost of nothing. It's been in existence since the Windows Mobile days, and is available on a wide sleuth of platforms: Android, iOS, Symbian, Blackberry, Java, PC, Mac, and of course, Windows Phone. The app allows you to chat with other Nimbuzz users, as well as friends on Facebook, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, and WLM for free. Some form of Twitter integration is also baked into the app.
Three months after the phone's debut as the device to end the "smartphone beta test", Nokia has just sliced the price of the Lumia 900 in half on AT&T in the United States. Now, you can pick it up at the low cost of $49.99 when paired with a two year contract with the carrier. The announcement of this pricing change coincides with the announcement of a pink Lumia 900, which joins the existing white, black, and cyan color schemes that the device also comes in.
Halo is an extremely iconic title, and with the development involved in creating each new iteration to the series becoming more meticulous and time-consuming, Microsoft had to look for other ways to entertain the large number of Halo enthusiasts between titles. With Halo 4 being the next in the series, the Redmond company plans to lay on a short series of live-action episodes, and to whet the appetite of those anticipating the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn series, a teaser trailer has been released.
Microsoft Office is widely renowned as the number one software package in the field of productivity, and in line with the upcoming release of Windows 8, the Redmond company is also preparing a new version of its popular suite, Microsoft Office 2013.
