Microsoft posts

The scene was one familiar to many tech geeks. It was after the launch of Netflix’s PS3 app, and I, breathlessly, excitedly, couldn’t wait to show my parents, who had a PS3 under their TV too. “Look!”, I said “you can watch an unlimited number of movies! There are new ones and classics and documentaries… trust me, you’ll love this.” My father’s brown furrowed a little. “Okay,” he said skeptically. “What do I have to do?” “Oh, it’s easy, I said. First, switch the input on the TV. Then pick up this remote and – well, you see that button with ‘P’ on it, press that. Okay, then see that circle pad? Use that to…

The past year in technology was among the more surprising ones we’ve had. Even the most astute, insightful tech observers would have had trouble predicting some of the things that happened this year. The iPad and Kinect have become the fastest selling electronic devices in history. Android exploded at a rate few could have seen coming. Facebook and Twitter kept up their blistering expansion rates, while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7… is actually good. But what about this coming year? What events and happenings will not only define 2011, but also cause tech-heads to look back in a year from now…

They never said it would last forever an if unless it’s just a last-second push to get tech blogs to warn people, Microsoft will stop selling the popular Windows 7 Family Pack at the end of this year. According to HotHardware, “12/31/2010 will be the final day Microsoft hosts this deal, and after that, it’s hard to say where these will be in stock.” With more families having three or more computers in their household, the package has seen tremendous popularity. At $150, it represents a 50% savings off buying each individually, even at a discounted rate of $99 each. …

Ever since Microsoft’s Kinect hit the market, it has been a hot accessory for the Xbox 360. However, it was only a matter of time before some clever hackers managed to break into its guts and use it to control even more than what had been initially planned. Now we have seen what those hackers could come up with, and it has ranged from the intriguing to the downright naughty. So here are a few videos to keep you in the loop with what people have been working on recently. Warning: some might be more disturbing than others. Here is a demonstration of how Kinect could be used in sex games, as if teens don’t have…

2010 was, even more so than most, a rollercoaster year for tech. From the glossy newness of the iPad, to the frenzy surrounding Wikileaks, to the rise of Android, to the continuing explosion of Facebook and Twitter, it seemed the pace of change just kept on accelerating. Still, like any year, not all of that change was good. From the entrenchment of big media to  the ambivalence of ‘hacktivism’, 2010 had some disturbing trends for tech. Here are my picks for some of the worst. Old Media, Clinging to the Past While 2010 had some old media success stories – like the success of the The Atlantic or the unprecedented…

Those of you who bought a Kin (all 500 of you) probably liked the Kin Studio. It was likely one of the biggest reasons you bought the phone in the first place, having social networks and life-streaming apps from the cloud in your hands. As of January 31, 2011, the Kin Studio will be no more. Those who have a Kin will be given the option of getting a new phone for free. The phone will continue to work, as will Zune, text messaging, web, and other basic functionality, but the studio itself will be closed. According to WP Central, owners of the Kin will lose: Feed Reader will stop working Search Near me will stop…

For some time now, serious digital gaming on the PC has been dominated by one brand alone: Steam. And so it should be. No-one else has offered a more straightforward, integrated, transparent approach to gaming. Steam has made PC gaming infinitely better, and it’s conceivable that without Valve’s efforts, gaming with a keyboard and mouse would be in far worse shape today. But Microsoft, never content to back down from a challenge, are fighting back with their new iteration of Games for Windows Live. Games for Windows Live – or GWFL as it’s known – was always an attempt to mimic the kind of success of…

This is intense. Are you seated? Of course you’re seated, that’s a stupid question – who stands around in their laundry room reading tech news? Anyway, if, in the unlikely event you are not seated, you would like to be, please take this opportunity, because I’m about to let fly with some totally rad shizz all up in your eyeballs, or something, and I’d hate for you to, like, fall and break your wrist on the awesome I just spread all over the floor. What a mess of an opening paragraph. Anyway, seems Microsoft is taking the concept of ‘touchscreen’ to its logical conclusion with a new patent, which will allow…

In many ways, Xbox 360 Kinect is simply another tech product. Microsoft, like so many companies before it, is attempting to expand its demographic reach and maybe rebrand a key product in the process. But Kinect itself may be indicative of more than just one company’s attempts to make some cash. After all, like the iPhone before it, Kinect is a new model for interfaces. It might not be the very first gesture controlled system; but it’s certainly the coolest and most accessible. As a result, it might mean the success of Kinect, like other transformations in how we interact technology, may be a sign…

Surely you’ve seen your share of Kinect hacks in the last little while – hell, even last week I posted a couple here on Techi. Microsoft was originally not down with this, and implied potential legal action against anyone modifying their device. But it seems they’ve now had a change of heart, claming Kinect was always ‘open by design’, and that they’re happy to have folks write all sorts of drivers for all manner of Kinect-based ballyhoo. “What has happened,” says Microsoft’s Alex Kipman to NPR, “is someone wrote an open-source driver for PCs that essentially opens the USB connection, which we didn’t…