Microsoft and Nokia have one thing in common: they like to do things extraordinarily slow. It appears that their newfound relationship which makes Nokia the future hope for Windows Phone 7 is also going to take it slow. Any hope for a WP7-powered Nokia device this year is fading fast. The managing director at Nokia revealed that the company has a 12-month plan to integrate WP7 with Nokia devices. This would put a release date around the first quarter of 2012 if all things go according to plan. Only then will we learn if WP7 and Nokia was a wise decision. Until then, Nokia has around 20 Symbian-powered…

If there’s one thing the Kinect is good for, it’s facilitating interesting and downright clever hacks. Obviously. If you thought I was going to say ‘gaming’, you’re not a gamer. In any case, check this out. London Hackspace has developed what they’ve dubbed the Evil Genius Simulator – a device which uses a Kinect to monitor the motions of the aspiring genius’ hands. The higher they’re raised (ideally accompanied by maniacal laughter) the more lightning that jumps between two Tesla coils set up behind it all. This is nothing if not a lesson in basdassery. I dunno how comfortable I’d feel turning…

What outpaced the ubiquitous Apple iPad and iPhone in terms of sales? According to the Guinness World Records, it’s the Kinect for the Xbox 360. Kinect has officially become the Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device. The device enables users to play video games without the use of a traditional controller. On average, 133,333 Kinects were sold each day between November 2010 and January 2011. The launch of the device was more successful than either the iPhone or the iPad’s launch. “The sales figures here speak for themselves,” says Gaz Deaves, Editor of Guinness World Records…

Let the money exchange flow both ways. That’s what is starting to transpire in the Nokia/Microsoft deal and there are a lot of zeros involved in the transactions. Microsoft is set to pay Nokia Oyj over $1 billion for the development and promotion of Windows-based phones. In exchange, Nokia pays Microsoft for each copy of Windows used in its phones. Stocks have fallen over 25% since the announcement of the agreement between the two companies less than a month ago. According to Colin Gillis, analyst at BHC Partners, “This gives Microsoft scale and allows Nokia to rip out costs. Microsoft is getting…

While Microsoft was preoccupied with its conquest for desktop supremacy, something crazy happened. They called it the mobile revolution. This was when the notion that an iPod was only a music player and a computer was only only something used at a desk quickly faded away. It was a time when devices were getting smaller, smarter, and sexier. Microsoft, unfortunately, didn’t get the memo. Apple did. Apple took control of mobile with the iPod Touch and the iPhone, notebooks with with Macbook/Macbook Pros, digital distribution with iTunes, third-party developers with the iOS ecosystem. Everything…

Steven Bathiche might have just become Microsoft’s most popular developer for the time being. He has created a slew of new tech demos utilizing Microsoft Kinect that will enable users to interact with displays in ways never done before. One demonstration — of a “wedge” lens — in particular could solve the problem of creating a 3D image without active- or passive-style glasses. The image on the screen orientates itself to the user by using Kinect’s tracking mechanism; the exciting thing is that it can do this for more than a single user. Either way, it is pretty cool stuff, and we hope that the…

If you’re not an iPhone-toting Macolyte, you may be following the adventures of Windows Phone 7, the little operating system that could – and in particular, Nokia’s recent decision to ditch Symbian (the little operating system that couldn’t) to the curb in favour of it. Most tech heads, shocked at the partnership, cried foul, decrying the move as bad for both Nokia and Microsoft. But come on, guys, Windows Phone 7 isn’t that bad. It’s functional (in this blogger’s opinion, every bit as much as iOS) and if it isn’t the most gorgeous, chrome-free interface a phone’s ever seen, nothing is. Anyway,…

When Facebook, Microsoft, and a mysterious website known as Make-My-Baby go to town, everyone wins. Everyone, that is, except for us. The company uses a fairly simple affiliate marketing technique that is not only spammy but also potentially dangerous. It lures people in via Facebook ads… a lot of them. Only AT&T and Match.com contribute more to the $1.86 billion in yearly ad revenue that Facebook receives. Once visitors arrive at the site, they are prompted to install a toolbar plugin to “present an enhanced experience” for their users. At this point, you should run away. Once installed,…

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…

Microsoft was satisfied enough to announce that they had sold 1.5 million units of their Windows Phone 7 platform for the past six weeks it has been available. Not too amazing, sure, but it is a start. However, we were just thrown a curve ball when it was revealed that these numbers are not the actual sales to consumers. No, these figures represent the number of Windows Phone 7 phones sold by phone manufacturers to retailers and mobile providers. So the picture just became more complicated. The numbers might not be true sales to consumers, but they are — at least when argued by Microsoft — competitive….