IDC Research's Lewis Ward has, amid a fair bit of speculation regarding Xbox and Kinect, really thrown the cat amongst the pigeons with some pretty bold statements regarding Microsoft's next moves.
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.
Now that we are nearly into the last quarter of the calendar year, it means that the holiday season is officially coming and we need to be thinking about getting into that gift purchasing overdrive mode that sees us spend our hard earned money on friends, family and loved ones. Alternatively, we could just see it as an excuse to go out and buy ourselves all the great things that we want and blame it on holiday madness. I know which one I'd prefer.
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.
Microsoft today has started taking registrations for Windows 8 upgrade program for existing Windows 7 users. The program, which is available in 140 countries, lets you upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for as low as $14.99, provided that you meet the required criteria for the upgrade.
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.
If you are the owner and operator of a Windows based PC then the chances are that you might have taken the plunge and downloaded the Windows 8 release-to-manufacturing (RTM) build that has recently been made available by Microsoft to subscribers of MSDN and TechNet. The Windows 8 operating system has gained some significant traction during the course of the testing phase and there is definitely quite a buzz surrounding the official release with Windows fan desperate to get their hands on Microsoft's latest creation.
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.
In the current smartphone climate, it seems that everyone is talking about devices like the iPhone and Samsung's extremely popular Galaxy S III, or mostly devices that are built around iOS or Android. In all honesty, it is a bit of a short-sighted position to take, and although companies like Nokia have been cast into the wilderness in recent years, they have always been known for producing premium quality hardware. And now thanks to their partnership with Microsoft, we could hopefully see a re-emergence of the Finnish company.
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.
