As I noted in my editorial about what Microsoft should do next with SkyDrive, something that the Windows Live set of services are in dire need of is a redesign. I never was a fan of the current design that they have adopted: With design, it's often the details that make a world of difference - padding, margins, text - and all of these things are off, resulting in a set of products that lack finesse. So, what can Microsoft do to solve this problem?
As a generation of people, we should consider ourselves extremely lucky to live in a age which represents the cutting edge of technological breakthroughs and advancements. Rarely a day seems to go by without some new technology-based product being released to the public, whether this is a new smartphone or tablet, a new flat screen high definition television set or hopefully something more out there and unique in the not too distant future like the proposed Google’s virtual reality goggles.
Unsatisfied with the lack of Metro on the Windows 8 "legacy" desktop, one Verge forum user took it upon himself to create mockups that depict what the OS would look like if Microsoft were to ditch Aero in favor of an entirely Metro user interface design.
It would seem that Apple are on a solo mission to single-handedly conquer and dominate every market that they choose to enter. I am pretty sure they could take any mediocre product, apply their own engineering magic, then slap an Apple logo on it and turn it into massively saleable item all around the world. Their unique attention to detail, design and marketing seems to ensure that every product they release achieves huge success time and time again.
Now, this is a fairly spontaneous rumor with little proof, so this one must be taken with a grain of salt: Microsoft is reportedly in talks with record labels on creating a new music service that caters to the Xbox and "an upcoming Windows-based phone".
VLC is, without a shadow of doubt, one of the most popular media players available. Combining a sleek, simplistic interface with the ability to play seemingly any audio or video file, its underbelly of rich features have seen the application become an essential utility to the masses.
Following Apple's announcement of its upcoming Mountain Lion OS yesterday, people naturally began producing comparisons between the two OSes, whether in the form of a jestful "Windows 8 vs. ML" tweet, or a clarifying blog post that reminds you - since you didn't know - that desktop OSes are beginning to draw a great deal of inspiration from their mobile counterparts. But really, that's about the only true similarity between Mountain Lion and Windows 8. Beyond this, Apple and Microsoft's approaches are so vastly different that the colossal void that lies between the opposing directions they have taken is large enough to accommodate all of those comparison posts from yesterday. So, let me commence this actually sensible comparison between the two approaches to the desktop and tablet markets.
A day after Apple presented its forthcoming Mountain Lion OS to the world, Microsoft has given PC users something to mull over by unveiling the Metro-themed Windows 8 Logo.
Microsoft's Kinect was originally launched as a novel way of playing games which took the motion control gaming of the Nintendo Wii and made it truly controller-free. Using a camera and microphone, the Kinect changed the way we interact with our Xbox 360s, though whether much more than a novelty or a gimmick remains to be seen.
Considering the fact that Angry Birds has nearly achieved world domination, it seemed rather bizarre that the world’s biggest and most successful mobile game hadn't been released on the world’s largest and most successful social network. Not wanting to leave the world in a state of unbalance, Rovio have rectified that situation which means that those temperamental birds are now available to fling around as a native Facebook application.
