Microsoft Windows 8 Preview
Touch-centric interface and application experience designed as a natural reflection of the device.
At 2011 Computex, Microsoft Corp. showed hardware partners the next version of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” to help the partners build devices that take advantage of the new user experience. As part of this technical preview, Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem at Microsoft, demonstrated how “Windows 8″ is optimized for newer touch-centric hardware, including tablets, while still delivering the flexibility, connectivity and power that people have come to expect from Windows today.
The technical demonstration also highlighted the new operating system’s ability to work across both x86 and ARM-based architectures, with a variety of early prototypes shown running the new operating system. Microsoft and silicon chip makers AMD, Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. initially announced plans in January to work together on the next version of Windows.
“Our aim with ‘Windows 8′ is to make the user experience a natural extension of the device, from the time you turn on your PC through how you interact with the applications you know and love,” Angiulo said. “This represents a fundamental shift in Windows design that we haven’t attempted since the days of Windows 95, presenting huge opportunities for our hardware partners to innovate with new PC designs.” Read more
Microsoft Announced Finalists for Global Student Technology Competition
More than 400 students invited to showcase their technology to solve the world’s toughest problems at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Finals in New York.
In July, more than 400 of the brightest young minds from around the world will travel to New York to showcase their innovative ideas for using technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. As the winners of regional, national and online Imagine Cup competitions, these high school and university students represent the pinnacle of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurialism from 73 countries and regions around the globe.
This year, more than 350,000 students from 183 countries registered for Microsoft Corp.’s Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition. The 124 student teams secured their places at the July 8–13 Worldwide Finals event, where they will demonstrate technological advancements in problem-solving and compete for international recognition and $215,000 (U.S.) in cash prizes in categories including Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Design, Digital Media, Windows Phone 7, IT Challenge, Interoperability Challenge, Windows 7 Touch Challenge and the Orchard Challenge. The students’ projects tackle serious humanitarian issues, often inspired by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, such as the environment, health, accessibility and education. Read more
Microsoft to Acquire Skype for $8.5 billion in cash
Microsoft will acquire Skype for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake.
The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Skype.
The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities. The combination will extend Skype’s world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft’s existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.
With 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally. Microsoft has a long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms, including Lync (which saw 30 percent revenue growth in Q3), Outlook, Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox LIVE. Read more
Microsoft Announced Free Accessibility Tools and Training for Developers
Online training and resources can help corporations, governments and NGOs worldwide make their technology products and services more accessible to people with disabilities.
Microsoft announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Accessibility Tools & Training, a package of free online accessibility training courses, tools and other resources to help developers worldwide create technology products, services and websites that are accessible to people with disabilities, and to enable business leaders to make more strategic technology decisions.
Microsoft made the announcement at the 26th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, sponsored by California State University, Northridge (CSUN). The annual CSUN conference brings the accessibility community together to share best practices and to learn about new and emerging accessibility products and solutions.
Microsoft initially developed the online tools and training courses to increase accessibility awareness and expertise among its own developer groups. In response to growing customer demand for accessibility guidance, however, Microsoft decided to make the resources available, free of charge, to corporations, governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world that want to make technology more accessible.
Microsoft is also offering an accessibility resource guide to help organizations meet the needs of people with all types of abilities. The guide, which can be downloaded or printed, provides specific information about many types of disabilities, impairments and age-related difficulties and some of the accessible technology solutions that can help address them. The training courses, tools and resource guide are all available online; most of these resources are also available on CD.
“Microsoft is one of the technology industry’s leaders in accessibility innovation and developing accessible technology, and we continuously work to improve access to our products and services,” said Bonnie Kearney, director of marketing for Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft. “By making these training courses and resources widely available, we hope that we can help raise the level of accessibility worldwide for people of all ages and abilities.” Read more
Microsoft Announced Global Availability of Internet Explorer 9
More than 250 top sites from around the globe join the launch of Internet Explorer 9 to celebrate a more beautiful, immersive Web.
Microsoft announced the launch of the latest version of the world’s most-used browser with the release of Windows Internet Explorer 9 in 39 languages at an event at the SXSW Interactive conference. Internet Explorer 9 is Microsoft’s most-downloaded browser beta of all time, with more than 40 million downloads, and it has already has gained more than 2 percent usage on Windows 7. Already more than 250 top sites from around the globe are taking advantage of the capabilities in Internet Explorer 9 to deliver differentiated experiences to their customers, with many featured on http://www.BeautyoftheWeb.com. Together, these partners reach more than 1 billion active Internet users on the Web.
“The best experience of the Web is on Windows with Internet Explorer 9,” said Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president, Windows Internet Explorer, at Microsoft. “Today, the Web can unlock the power and performance of the best PC hardware through Windows and Internet Explorer 9. Websites also can act more like applications within Windows 7, with features such as Pinned Sites. In less than a year, Internet Explorer 9 went from early preview to final release with the help of hardware partners and the Web community.” Read more