All of the big guns are looking to get in on the cloud computing act, and Microsoft is no exception with its SkyDrive service. As per the MSDN blog, much work has gone into improving SkyDrive over the course of the last couple of months, and now, a preview of the SkyDrive desktop client has been released, along with a plethora of improvements to existing services.
For Skype fans, and more specifically those who lean towards the Windows Phone side of the mobile world, it seems as if the official Skype app has been hanging over our heads for quite some time now. Skype for Windows Phone was first released as a public beta at the end of February this year.
Earlier this week, Microsoft officially unveiled the official SKUs of Windows 8, and, much to the surprise of many Microsoft enthusiasts, they actually simplified things. However, while the simplification is definitely a great step as far as branding is concerned, they did do one peculiar thing: The SKU for Windows on ARM was named Windows RT.
In concluding their E3 2011 keynote, Microsoft reaffirmed fans that the Halo franchise wasn't dead and showed off a short teaser of Halo 4. Master Chief, the Halo series' protagonist was ordered to wake up and he navigated around some sort of destroyed space station. It was announced that the game will be released by the 2012 holiday season, and Microsoft has just confirmed earlier rumors that Halo 4 will be released on November 6th. And to commemorate the newest title in the infamous Halo franchise, the game will be featured tonight on Conan.
Given that Windows Phone is still in relative infancy, the activity regarding customization and modding devices running Microsoft's mobile OS has yet to really get out of first gear. The guys over at XDA Developers have once again delivered a treat to mobile enthusiasts, though, with the first custom ROM for both the Lumia 800 and 710.
Samsung's Taiwanese branch has confirmed that it will begin retailing Windows Phone 8 smartphones as soon as October. Responding to the questions of reporters, Samsung Taiwan has noted that it would not be introducing Windows Phone 7 (Mango) in Taiwan, instead looking towards the introduction of Windows Phone 8 (Apollo) handsets this October.
There's a lot of talk right now about Nokia and its Windows Phone 7 handsets. Specifically, it is the newly released and much hyped Lumia 900 which is seeing most of the headlines and clicks right now.
Facebook is in the news a lot recently, with the social network splashing the cash to acquire photo sharing platform, Instagram. One of the reasons the company was in the news last year, the new Timeline feature, is now the subject of a Microsoft-made website, too.
The general consensus is that the Windows Phone 7.x operating system is a winner with the beautiful Metro styling, but that doesn't mean that it is going to keep everyone happy all of the time. One thing we know for sure is that mobile smartphone users have unique tastes, meaning that one mans trash is most definitely another mans treasure.
Microsoft has today released a new piece of beta software, and this time it's search-based. Called the Bing Desktop Beta, the software is, predictably, a beta release of a desktop-based search tool that Microsoft is hoping will give people a reason to make the switch to its search engine, and leave Google behind once and for all.
