The technology that Microsoft has been envisioning for the future is astounding, realistic, and will give us the opportunity to be more productive. That much is true. What’s not true is that they say these technologies will help bring families together. Judging by the recent history of technological advances, that’s the exact opposite effect of the technologies they describe in their video, “Microsoft’s New Envisioning Center: Live, Work, Play.” Take smartphones, for example. They are technological wonders that allow multiple methods of communication from face-to-face video interaction…

It’s hard to believe that Facebook is nearly a decade old. I can remember when it was just a social media toddler spreading across colleges. Oh, how it has grown. The last five years have been tumultuous but successful for the most popular website in the world. It was in 2008 that Microsoft gave the ultimate bid of credibility to the site by investing in it, something that the software giant rarely did for up-and-comers like a social network. It can be argued that it was at that point that the attention of the world really turned to Mark Zuckerberg’s baby and the site has stayed in the forefront of media…

Sony started teasing a big event that they’ll be hosting on February 20th. Much of the blogosphere is buzzing that it may be the announcement of the PlayStation 4. If so, this could be the move that Sony has needed to make for a while. It isn’t that the old platform is outdated. At just over 6 years old, the PlayStation 3 is still technically the state of the art when it comes to pure console play. The Nintendo and Microsoft counterparts have had their share of interesting developments such as the Wii U and Kinect, but neither has been enough to really distance themselves from the competition. Sony has…

Clever. Tasty. Creepy. Hot Pop Factory has been able to make a name for itself by generating creative pieces of jewelry using 3D printers. Now, they’ve used a neat hack with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect system to scan a person’s head, print it out on a 3D printer, and put it on the top of a Pez dispenser. If you’ve ever wanted to distribute candy through a hole beneath a figure of your head on a stick, this is the way to do it. Check out the video of how they scan the heads through Kinect and some images of the finished results:  …

Microsoft had a good thing going. They created a pair of videos aimed at diffusing some of the hate towards their Internet Explorer browser by trolling the trolls. They attacked the cliches used against them such “IE is only good for downloading other browsers” by making fun of the haters. In essence, they turned the hate around by acknowledging that they are the butt of many jokes. They de-clawed their detractors and gave ammunition to those who are tired of hearing the geek elite make fun of them for using the grandfather of modern browsers. The latest ad is a step in the wrong direction. They attempt,…

Your data on your computer, laptop or any other personal electronic gadget is never risk free and there is always a chance of losing your data from your device. However, there is a solution to save yourself from a disaster of losing all your data. Some people use local hardware storage for storing their data, but they may tend to lose their data even stored on a hardware storage. The use of computers, cell phones and other electronic gadgets has changed radically as they have the ability to back your data and offers cloud storage. It also offers the ability to sync multiple devices automatically. The…

There’s something particularly creepy about Google Now that not only makes it superior to Siri and other voice- and location-based digital personal assistants, it makes it worrisome to those who take their privacy seriously. For the first time, we get to see the full breadth of how much Google really knows about us as individuals. It knows us from our Gmail accounts. It tracks our activities online. It knows where we are at any given moment. It’s aware of our real-world activities. In essence, it knows more about us than many of our significant others. That should be a little disconcerting. Strangely,…

Imagine a search engine that truly knew you. No, not in the way that Google or Bing personalize their search results based upon your history and preferences – what if a search engine could take the information that you give about yourself as well as the information that your friends and family put in and cater your search results around your most likely goals and desires from the search? Would you use it? If Marissa Mayer, CEO at Yahoo, has her way, that may be exactly what we see in the future. The plot for the social media giant to work very closely with the former search giant is a combination that should…

Have you ever wondered about the history of computers? ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) might’ve been the first computer, but it was not the first computer with the mouse and keyboard that we’re accustomed to. The question is when (and how) did it start? Back in 1984 when Apple launched the Macintosh, the need for competition emerged, and at that time Microsoft engraved its name in history by introducing ‘Windows’. This gave rise to one of the most infamous rivalries in history — Apple vs. Microsoft. Within a short time, Microsoft’s OS became a success — and not just…

Microsoft is releasing a new operating system, Windows 8, October 26th. There have been many changes, and many backend improvements, as well as a huge buzz on the Internet. But how well does the new operating system hold up? …