Microsoft's logo has remained unchanged for the past quarter of a century, and that simplistic, italic font has found its home on millions of machines, mouses, keyboards and software items in that 25-year period. Now, in-keeping with the Redmond company's change of direction in Windows 8, the most famous of corporate logos has finally been revamped.
Microsoft's Kinect peripheral was the fastest-selling gadget of all time, and has propelled the Redmond company's Xbox 360 console to the summit of the console wars. Sony's PlayStation Move offers similar features, but simply hasn't managed to yield the popularity of Kinect, and for those of you who've yet to get involved in the interaction-fest, you can now grab your very own Kinect sensor for the reduced price of $109.99.
If you happen to be the owner of a touch-screen tablet like the iPad or something similar, and also a big fan of Microsoft's Office suite of programs, then you probably live under an umbrella of disappointment and are aware of the fact that the Redmond software giants don't offer any native Office apps for the iPad. There's been talk of the iPad App Store receiving some official apps from Microsoft, but up until now nothing has come to fruition, leaving some users extremely disappointed and having to look for alternative solutions to satisfy their need to create and edit documents on the go.
If you are dicing with the idea of going out and purchasing the fabulous new Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft, then it could be worthwhile getting on board with it earlier rather than later. Microsoft is planning on offering the Windows 8 Pro version at an initial promotional price point of $69.99 for early adopters, with the price finally increasing to $199 when that promotion comes to an end on January 31st 2013.
It would take a brave man to try and attempt to predict when Apple's stock will stop rising and eventually find its limit. The share price has continued to rise and rise over recent months and the intense speculation surrounding the new iPhone and any other possible hardware releases next month obviously have played their part with the share price rising by a total of 8 percent so far this month, with 2.3 percent rise today alone in afternoon trading.
We've had the talk about the reported miniature iPad, we seem to have gotten over the physical Apple television set rumors and we have had our fair share of the Apple versus Samsung discussions so with the company looking likely to announce the next-generation release of their popular smartphone, it must be time to turn focus back onto the iPhone. Thanks to unprecedented interest in the possible specifications of the release, the iPhone is very rarely out of the media, which is something that has obviously paid off for Apple when you consider the staggering statistic that we are about to talk about.
One of the driving forces behind Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console’s success was the introduction of the Xbox LIVE platform that allows gamers from all over the world to compete against each other from the comfort of their own homes. As you would expect, Microsoft offers a free of charge LIVE package, but serious gamers who want to get the most out of their connected video game world, the Gold subscription is usually the way to go.
Microsoft is now offering a 90-day trial of Windows 8 Enterprise edition for development and evaluation purposes. Earlier today, Microsoft released the final bits of Windows 8 RTM to MSDN and TechNet subscribers.
Windows 8's October 26th release date has been confirmed, and in the meantime, Redmond-based Microsoft has been preparing all the associated bits and pieces usually associated with a major OS release, including Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 which have both been released to MSDN and TechNet today.
The next moves of Microsoft and the Windows Phone 8 platform are extremely critical in mobile space. Currently dominated by iOS and Android, no other platform has the potential to compete with the two titans quite like Windows Phone 8, and although some details are still scarce, the evolved mobile ecosystem will cater to more powerful devices than ever before.
