May 31, 2012
In 2011 I wrote an op-ed piece (for a different website…!) about how I felt that Microsoft had moved away from being the many-tentacled corporate beast with no interest in providing a solid, working operating system and every interest in raping dollars out of customers. I argued that after the failure of Windows Vista, Microsoft had emerged as a company in touch with its user base, listening and almost caring.
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May 30, 2012
Windows PCs are notoriously junk-filled out-of-the-box. Buy a Microsoft Signature PC from a Microsoft Store (yes, Microsoft has a handful of stores across the US) and you’ll find it free of the usual junk. Soon, Microsoft will offer to turn any PC into a Microsoft Signature PC with its "Signature Upgrade" service - as long as you pay $99. But here's how you can save that money.
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May 24, 2012
Microsoft has just launched So.cl, their own version of a social network, but it is a little different from what you typically see from social networks. Generally, a social network is a place to share status updates, locations, photos and general information about what is going on with your life. Microsoft's social spot is all about sharing web searches.
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May 18, 2012
Are we in the midst of the final days of Microsoft as we know it? Feedback from tech professionals about Metro UI has been predominantly negative so far, but that's the least of our worries if recents trends are any indication of the future. Here, dear readers, are 3 reasons why I think Microsoft is truly losing, if not lost already, the proverbial plot.
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May 4, 2012
If you’re a Bing user, or thinking of switching to Bing, pay attention. Microsoft has just rolled out a new look for Bing search, which offers a de-cluttered, cleaner and faster experience for Bing users. The new design takes from the Metro theme, obviously, with lots of straight lines and white space. Microsoft has been [...]
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May 1, 2012
Bing receives a lot of flack as a search engine, but it has some cool features. One of them is Bing Maps, a robust competitor to Google Maps – and it’s now a bit sharper than before. Clarity comes courtesy of a de-blurring algorithm developed by Microsoft. Originally intended for consumer cameras, it has been [...]
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April 24, 2012
Microsoft is taking cloud storage seriously, and they are showing that by releasing a new SkyDrive app for both Mac and PC. They also issued a new update for their already released mobile apps. The Windows and Mac version are both available now for free. The desktop version of the app works very similarly to [...]
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April 10, 2012
Contests and giveaways are time honored ways to promote a product. Microsoft is not one to ignore this, and recently started an unusual promotion designed to attract attention for its struggling Windows Phone operating system. The company set up “free time machines” in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Since the name isn’t self-explanatory, here’s [...]
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April 2, 2012
Last month I was at Blip Fest in Melbourne, watching a bunch of musically talented geeks using their Game Boys and ZX Spectrums to make pounding yet tuneful electro beats. A projector accompanied the music, showing glitchy visualizations, vintage console classics and a real-time processed stream from a Microsoft Kinect. It was the first time I had seen a hacked unit in the wild.
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March 21, 2012
I have ripped on Apple quite a bit here on MakeUseOf in recent weeks. Partly because a company of that size and stature deserves to get taken down a peg or two from time to time, partly to counter the weight of Apple fanboys on the Web, and partly because, well, it's fun, quite frankly. However, in the spirit of fairness there are other tech giants ripe for a little gentle ribbing.
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March 2, 2012
The next iteration of Microsoft’s answer to flight simulations, Microsoft Flight, has finally been released for free on the Games for Windows platform. In December we reported that MS had put out a call for beta testers, and now development team Microsoft Studios has deemed the “freemium” title ready for public consumption. It won’t cost [...]
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February 27, 2012
If you’re running Windows Vista and were worried about the 5-year support ending soon, you can now relax. Microsoft has extended its consumer support for Windows 7 and Vista to 10 full years after the OS’s official release date. Traditionally, individual consumers have enjoyed 5 years of Mainstream support for their Windows product, in which [...]
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February 17, 2012
Following its release for iOS, OneNote is now officially available for Android devices. Up until now, the mobile version of OneNote was available on Windows Phone and iOS, and now, finally, Android has joined the party, enabling millions of users to sync their OneNote notebooks to their mobile device. OneNote, which is a part of [...]
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February 5, 2012
Microsoft SkyDrive has been around for a while, but was recently given a fairly significant update. We took some time to talk to Microsoft about the new features and play with it all, so here's a breakdown of what you can expect.
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January 19, 2012
With the introduction of the Windows Phone platform in 2010, Microsoft unveiled the Metro user interface, designed to make accessing information quick and easy. Rather than litter their new mobile platform with endless rows of icons, Microsoft’s tile-based interface proved that there was another way to make mobile phones functional.
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