About a month ago, it became known that Microsoft was going to host a Windows Phone Developer Summit in San Francisco that will span two days. Well, Microsoft has followed up and opened registration for that Windows Phone Summit while also reducing it down to a one day-long event on June 20.
On top of debuting one rumored product - SmartGlass - the company also dropped news of yet another pretty major service: Microsoft's rumored "Woodstock" music streaming service is real, and it's called Xbox Music. Announced by Yusuf Mehdi at the E3 stage, Xbox Music is a service that will be available not just on the console, but on Windows 8 and Windows Phone devices as well. Without delving into too many details, Microsoft did share that the service will offer 30 million tracks to boot. The Smart DJ service that is available on the current Zune service will also live on within Xbox Music. Again, not much details were revealed during the demo - or teaser, rather - or even now after the show, but all that could be seen is a Metro-styled music service that looks rather similar to the Zune.
As well as concentrating on bringing a host of new services and products to consumers, Microsoft has been placing a lot of emphasis in improving what it already has. The lack of progress of Internet Explorer over the years has seen the likes of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome become the front runners - despite the fact that 90 per cent of computer users run Windows, and thus have Internet Explorer installed by default.
Microsoft’s Don Mattrick has kicked off Microsoft E3 event today by announcing its flagship Xbox 360 console has gone from being the biggest selling console in North America to the most popular console worldwide.
With Microsoft pushing the Release Preview of Windows 8 and a Release Candidate build of Windows Server 2012 today, it seems that the download fun doesn't end there, with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 RC also being available for users to download. Users can now start preparing for what Microsoft call the "next generation of development", claiming that developers can't predict the future, but they can get there first.
With Microsoft pushing out the Release Preview of their new Windows 8 operating system today, the launch has been followed closely by the release of the server edition of the new OS. Formerly codenamed Windows Server 8 but now officially known as Windows Server 2012, Microsoft have captured the excitement surrounding the aforementioned Release Preview to make the release candidate of Windows Server 2012 available.
Owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console who are not already subscribed to Xbox LIVE Gold will be able to give the service a try for free this weekend. For the period of June 1st to June 3rd, gamers will be able to take advantage of all that an Xbox LIVE Gold account has to offer, without having to stump up the fee usually associated with it.
By setting password protection on access to your Windows PC, the notion is that you're safe from intrusion, and although this is largely true in most cases, that doesn't mean there are not ways to circumvent the apparently strict security. You would presume - as should be the case - that the only way one could access a locked account is to have guessed the password, but thanks to a few tricks involving command prompts and sticky keys, anybody with a short amount of elevated access could easily start running executables right from the login screen.
Of the many upcoming entries to the technology fray, Windows 8 is by far one of the most anticipated. The Consumer Preview dropped in February to critical acclaim, and although there's nothing particularly amiss with the current Windows 7, consumers are still pretty eager to sink their teeth into the Metro interface.
Although Apple's iPad appears to have the untouchable magic formula that Android vendors have thus far failed miserably to replicate, there's certainly a feeling of optimism regarding future Windows 8 tablets. Given that the Metro interface of Microsoft's much-lauded universal OS seems to be the perfect suitor to the post-PC devices, the Redmond-based software outfit is regarded by many as a major threat to Apple's dominance in the market it started only two years back.
