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Posts tagged microsoft
Exclusive! Microsoft Store Opens with Windows 7! No WM7 In Sight
Oct 22nd
Microsoft opened the doors to their new store here in Scottsdale, AZ today at Fashion Square Mall blending ‘high technology with high fashion’ as one speaker said. I was able to grab a press pass and sneak inside (along with hundreds of others) and see what’s happening and new. Microsoft had a wrap around projection screen (and I mean wrapped around the store) hooked up to various XBOX 360s, PCs, and Notebooks. The Microsoft Surface table was on display in various parts of the store showcasing the multitouch features including Microsoft Concierge, a product gallery and some cool games for parties. Too bad it’s dishing out at $30K for commercial use only right now, but they hope to bring that down for consumers in the near future. What you really want to know about though is Windows Mobile. That’s where I headed first.
The Windows Mobile, or ‘Windows Phone,’ station was meager and only offered up four phones and two mifi’s. I had my fingers crossed for a sneak at Windows 7 but the world doesn’t work that way. All four phones were sporting Windows Mobile 6.5 and none were from T-Mobile. By the way, there is an update for the Touch Pro2 to Windows Mobile 6.5 on the HTC website but it isn’t carrier specific so don’t count on tech support from T-Mobile yet. The MS employees told me what we already know about 6.5 on T-Mobile, that when T-Mobile is done with quality control and checking it will be released to us in an official ROM. Good news (sigh), Windows Mobile 7 will be out…’next year sometime’
Microsoft was giving away goodie bags and gift cards to everyone, and a free copy of Office to the first 1,000 PC/notebook/netbook purchases. Without further ado, check out the random pictures after the jump! More >
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Loading ...Microsoft Marketplace Remote Kill Switch Not So Scary
Sep 22nd
Many of you might have heard of the fabled Marketplace kill switch that Microsoft will have hard lined into their Marketplace app. While not comforting to know that someone else has control over what your device does without your prior knowledge it is still comforting to know this is just like the Android Market kill switch in so much that it is place to subvert subversive apps with ill intent. In other words, if a developer creates a trojan app of some sorts and you download it to your device that the evil little app can be killed en masse at the flick of a switch. This feature is in place to save us from our own curiosity.
Sources: CoolSmartPhone, Ars Technica
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Microsoft Reader Updated to 2.4.2: Supports WM 6.1
Sep 22nd
This is a bit of older news that got stuck in the queue when the back end went bonkers. Enjoy!
For those of you wondering, Microsoft Reader was Microsoft’s early attempt at the mobile literature market, specifically ebooks. While the interface was simple, fairly intuitive and the fonts easily readable it suffered from a lack of updates and some DRM issues. I have a few .lit ebooks myself and one problem I frequently encountered was transferring DRM’ed books between devices. In order to do so, one would have to have Microsoft Reader installed on their PC and send it to the device from the app. There was no integration with ActiveSync and the whole affair was much too tedious.
Along came Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 and Reader disappeared into the ‘backups’ folder on many hard drives. It’s been around four years since the last update but Microsoft kicked it like an old washing machine and now it doesn’t whine on Windows Mobile 6.1. If you have some old .lit files download the slightly newer version here. As of right now Amazon, which used to sell them, doesn’t have any listed here. However if you want a large selection of current eBooks you can always check out MobiPocket.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Bing mobile is now live
Jun 5th
Bing, Microsoft’s recently released search engine now has a mobile version. Basically it’s just another search engine with some small new features. If your not happy with how Google works, or just want to test it out yourself, head over to Bing.com and check it out.
(average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Voice Commands
May 19th
The Shadow comes with Microsoft Voice Command 1.6. This little gem can be very handy in a variety of different ways. If you want some in depth information about it go to Start > Voice Command > Menu > Help. Included here is a list of the commands it recognizes. Voice command works with Bluetooth headsets as well and can announce incoming calls, upcoming appointments over the headset if you want it to. The best times to use Voice Command are when you are in a slight rush and don’t have the luxury of looking at your phone’s screen and pressing buttons. If you find you like Voice Command set your Shadow’s shortcut key to launch it quickly. I find the Short Press to be a better option than the long press, there are a few people that like to set the Short Press and the Press and Hold to launch Voice Command.
Keep reading for a list of commands to use with Voice Command More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Who Else Wants Free Stuff?
Dec 12th
I’m talking ringtones, wallpapers, applications and games. What? Who? You? Okay, it’s really easy. Head over to the Microsoft Owner’s Circle and just register. Then you will be able to take advantage of all the free stuff you can download there. Every month or so the content is updated so we’ll let you know when new applications show up.
Right now they are offering the following for FREE:
- Various Ringtones including the HALO theme
- Free Wallpapers
- Free Themes (if you don’t use the NEO interface)
- Free Games (Brain School is the current offering)
- Free Productivity Software (Photo Contacts 3.0, Viigo, etc)
So go ahead and check out the Owner’s Circle
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Vista SideShow Coming to Shadow?
Nov 24th
the::unwired tells us about a rumor that Vista users might have the ability in the future to have SideShow on their Windows Mobile device. This is very interesting as SideShow has been largely ignored for the most part.
Rumors include bluetooth control in addition to the interactive interface. For all the Shadow users, are there any features in SideShow that would make this a perfect addition to your Shadow?
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