If you are an iPhone or iPad owner and want to check your Xbox 360 profile you can do it now from your favorite iOS device. Microsoft has just pushed out their frist Xbox Live app for iOS devices named My Xbox Live.
Users can now exchange messages, manage contacts, edit their onlline profiles and view their gaming results directly from their iPad or iPhone. So wherever you are you can always check your status in the Xbox gaming community. Besides all this you will also receive a stream of gaming related news tips and tricks. This new app is created with the help of Microsoft’s new design which is known as ‘Metro’. Metro is a new user interface design concept which is pushed by Microsoft on their other platforms as well. Metro was already introduced on Xbox’s website, on the Windows Phone 7 and even on Microsoft’s latest Windows 8 operative system.
If you are a devoted gamer, My Xbox Live will be a great addition on your iPhone. While some people may look down on Microsoft made apps on their iOS device, if you are serious about your Xbox, you should definitely try out this app. You can get it right now as a free download in app store.
Sources from Microsoft Co. claim that the Richmond based company is working on a iOS version of their famous Microsoft Office suit. According to the rumor, Microsoft is preparing a version of the software for iPad as wells as a version of Office compatible with Mac Lion OS X. This is not a big surprise as former head of Microsoft Business Unit, Stephen Elop who is now CEO of Nokia, has already pointed that Microsoft had strong plans for such development.
At the time being iWork apps such as: Numbers, Keynote, Pages and others have been the primary office apps on iOS devices. The same apps were also widely used as a office suite on Mac’s. If Microsoft surprises us and does a good job with their Office package for iOS devices, they could easily take a chunk of the market from Apple‘s own iWork package. Microsoft will probably target the price range for the app to be competitive with iWorks suite.
A well designed Microsoft productivity package of apps priced at 10$, which is the current price of iWork, could be a great alternative to Apple’s iWork.
Would you consider using Microsoft Office on your iPad if it ever becomes available? Let us know in the comments bellow.
Microsoft has just launched another video add featuring perhaps their best product in recent times: the Xbox Kinect.
Xbox Kinect has been launched exactly one year ago. So far Microsoft has already sold millions of consoles enabling new generations of players to enjoy their games in a innovative and realistic ways. Richmond company has even prided themselves that Xbox Kinect became the fastest selling console of all times!
But while the device was certainly sold in large quantities some analysts still are somewhat critical, as not as many large games are available for this console. Instead, there are plenty of less known games which are not so attractive to players, especially when compared with competing gaming platforms. But luckily for Microsoft, a large DIY network arouse with the sensors in Kinect at the center of it. Skilled hackers have made Kinect working with almost anything including smartphones and desktop computers. Someone more cynical could say that Microsoft was stunned by the level of inventiveness shown by the Kinect user community exploiting Kinect in such ways no one inside Microsoft thought possible.
Interestingly this add looks similar to what Apple would release. And this is not really a coincidence especially if you known that Microsoft is building a network of Microsoft stores, wants to open an app store and competes in the smartphone market. It seems that Microsoft is seriously impressed by stelat success of Apple, and therefore wanst to emulate their successful strategies. It remains to be seen will this help or harm Bill Gates company. After all, we seriously doubt anyone else can reproduce Apple’s unique magic.
Anyway here is the video so you can decide for yourself. Kinect is indeed an interesting device!
Well knew the answer as far as we are concerned and we are sure it’s same with any other Apple fan out there. But lets try to compare the capabilities of both devices for a moment. It seems that the era of PC’s is behind us and that the future belongs to tablets in various forms and made by different producers. And obviously, Microsoft is really serious regarding this and the proof for this statement is that Windows 8 is basically an tablet version of Windows OS but with a strong point: its compatibility with Windows desktop computers.
Obviously Microsoft is giving its best trying to be a serious competitor to Apple and the fabulous iOS 5. According to latest market researches, Apple is controlling at least 68 % of the world market for tablets and the demand isn’t slowing down.
Here is a Youtube video where iPad 2 and a Windows 8 tablet are compared for more than 10 minutes. You will see how things appear and function on both devices giving you a chance to decide for yourself which one suits better for your particular needs. Keep in mind that Windows 8 is still an early beta testing version of the OS and that things should improve more or less in the coming months. The official version wont be available for a year more but curiously Microsoft has revealed the beta version probably to gain in publicity.
Will this prove as a good strategy for them? Let us know what do you think: which tablet is better in your opinion?
In a public response to recent patent clashes between Google and their competitors, Google’s representatives said that this is only a part of an organized action against Google backed Android mobile OS.
One of the highly ranked managers in Google, David Drumond wrote in his blog about the recent patent infringement campaign against Google and manufacturers of Android OS devices waged by an unlikely alliance of Microsoft, Oracle and Apple. He said that the ubiquitous success of Android OS has lately provoked a concerted and unacceptable action by aforementioned companies based on suspicious patent claims.
Mr Drumond also mentioned concerted action by Apple and Microsoft in an effort to win the auction for Nortel patents, calling for swift action by US Justice Department based on anti competitive actions.
He didn’t mention Google’s possible action against Lodsys which lately sues Android app developers for infringing on bogus patents. Apple on the other side has taken action against Lodsys to protect their developers. And knowing that Samsung has silently delayed launch of their Android tablet Samsung Tab 10.1 on Australian market because Apple has filled legal complaints against them in Australian courts and that Taiwanese HTC was pressured by Microsoft to pay $5 for every smartphone they sell, Google has a lot of reasons to be concerned.
It is true that Android has gained a leading position on the mobile OS market but as Apple captures most of the profits and Microsoft tries to increase the price of Android, Google will soon have to take action or otherwise they will certainly lose their leading position. And this wouldn’t be anything new. Look at Nokia and RIM for example. A couple of years ago Nokia was the leading manufacturer of cellphones. Now the company is in big trouble, same as RIM with their business oriented Blackberries.
It seems that some other companies aren’t so shy as Apple is when it comes to jailbreaking of their devices. Although it’s not fully clear to us: is this just a PR maneuver or a new policy? This is especially surprising as this news comes from Microsoft which hasn’t so far had a history of good relationship with hackers playing with their code.
The new jailbreak for Windows 7 Phone is coming from a dev group known as ChevronWP7 Lab. The news originated on the Windows Phone 7 Podcast, and according to this source the jailbreak should be launched officially in the near future. The jailbreak should become a useful tool for developers with different skill sets and located in different areas of the world. Officiall jailbreak for Windows 7 Phones will be available from ChevronWP7. This jailbreak will cost only a small amount of cash paid through PayPal.
This is something which will probably be cheered by both users and code developers. It differs radically than the policies promoted by Apple. TO remind you Apple has a strong policies to discourage users to jailbreak their iPhones and iPads. They even go so far as to deny tech support to users which have jailbroken their devices. This comes despite the fact that Apple still uses many of jailbreak tweaks and apps in their future iOS releases after they have initially been released and tested in the real world by independent jailbreak developers and jailbreak users. Last summer US courts have ruled out that jailbreaking is legal.
Both companies announced that they have reached a final agreement where Skype is bought by Microsoft. Skype is a renowned VOIP software which is used by millions of users worldwide. Microsoft announced that it intends to use Skype for connecting users across their various devices including Windows Phone 7, Kinect, Xbox console and their standard Windows PC environment. They also said that they intent to connect Skype with various online communities and services like Lync, Outlook and others. What will happen to other platform which have been so far supported by Skype including Skype for Mac OSX, iPhone iOS and other platforms?
Microsoft representatives announced that the company will continue to support and invest in cross platform versions of Skype. We will probably very soon find out whether this will be the case or not.
Do you use Skype on your iPhone or iPad? Will you try to find some other VoiP app instead of Skype? Any suggestions? We would love to hear your opinion on this in the comments!
Todays breaking news is that Finish smartphone giant Nokia is joining forces with Microsoft in order to regain the loosing market share. Nokia and Microsoft are both lagging far behind leading smartphones, Apple‘s iPhone and various devices powered by Google’s Android. Few days ago we heard about an internal memo which circulated in Nokia’s headquarters in Finland, stating that their “platform is on fire”.
Nokia Smartphone
In a sharp change of strategy seems that Nokia is leaving the Symbian OS behind and is choosing the new Windows Phone OS as the software platform for their handsets.
The details of their deal are still not available but here are some of the points of agreement.
Nokia will embrace Windows Phone as it main OS
Nokia will invest heavily in the future of the Windows Phone on the global market. They will invest their hardware capabilities and position of global player in the smartphone market to advance Windows Phone as a platform.
Both corporations will work together on the future development and marketing to influence the evolution of the global smartphone industry.
Nokia was until recently one of the main smartphone providers, but recent developments of Android and iOS has left Nokia far behind. Microsoft has on other side a good smartphone OS but not it is not spread nor widely used. Both corporations are trying to join forces to dispute the leading position of Android and Apple iPhone by joining their enormous know-how.
What will be the final result, only time will show. But at least we expect end users will enjoy the fruits of this increased competition. Maybe we will soon see a serious competitor to Apple’s iPhone?
