Kinect PlayFit, a fitness-based Xbox LIVE feature announced by Microsoft some time ago, has officially launched today, with details of the service being announced by Larry Hryb, otherwise known as Major Nelson.
Here's a rather interesting idea, and one that we honestly can't decide whether we would say is a good one, or a bad one. We'll take the length of this post to decide. Microsoft has today shown off a handy little USB stick which could potentially make itself indispensable to businesses and home computer owners alike, especially if they use more than one Windows machine on a daily basis.
Windows Phone 7.x users were somewhat disappointed to learn that Windows Phone 8 would not be coming to the current batch of WP devices. Instead, Microsoft has laid out a somewhat watered-down iteration in Windows Phone 7.8, so naturally, anybody looking to jump on the Windows Phone 8 background will need to grab themselves a new device, which while a little bit gutting, is still rather exciting at the same time.
The war of the operating systems has almost reached a boiling point, with Microsoft all but ready to push out the final build of Windows 8 and Apple looking likely to release OS X Mountain Lion later on this month, it represents nothing but a winning situation for the consumer. Windows 8 has been receiving some fantastic reviews from people who feel Microsoft have really stepped up with this version, with the only real contentious point being the price of the OS in comparison to Apple's $19.99 Mountain Lion offering.
Microsoft has today ditched Windows Home Server while simultaneously unveiling four new editions for Windows Server 2012. The four editions, which are aimed towards different types of businesses and enterprise, consist of Standard, Datacenter, Essentials, and Foundation.
Although nothing is confirmed, moves made by Redmond-based Microsoft could offer a hint as to the name of the next generation Xbox console, which, as yet, has oft only been referred to as the Xbox 720 by those putting two and two together.
In an interview on Finnish TV, a Nokia executive has claimed that the phone maker has a fallback plan should Windows Phone 8 not meet the company's expectations. That fallback plan? Google's open source Android operating system.
With Apple's OS X Lion retailing at a very reasonable $29.99 last summer, Microsoft has re-thought the pricing structure for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Hitherto, upgrading to the "Pro" variant of any Windows version has been a costly affair, but it will not be the case this time around for existing users.
It doesn't matter which company we are talking about, or what software or hardware they are intending to release, there is always going to be something which users will never like. In this instance, Microsoft is a company involved, and the product is the rather beautiful looking Windows 8. A few feathers were ruffled and noses disjointed when the Redmond company took the decision to remove the Start button from the Consumer Preview of Windows 8.
As of right now, the existing consumer tablet market is dominated and was essentially created by Apple when it released the first iPad. Since then, Microsoft and Google have been working to catch up and get their foot in the door of this Apple-dominated market. Google's Android tablet OS has managed to gain some ground, and we can expect Windows 8 tablets to hit the shelves later this year. However, in the past two weeks, both Microsoft and Google have announced special tablet hardware devices that they hope will help them gain even more ground in this market.
