SkyDrive gets simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management, HTML5 upload, other updates…

For more details read the post from Windows Live Team Blog http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/11/29/skydrive-gets-simple-app-centric-sharing-for-office-powerful-file-management-html5-upload-other-updates.aspx

Get Firefox with Bing http://www.firefoxwithbing.com/

For details read this post from The Bing Team http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/10/26/bff.aspx

Beta review program now open!

Join the MAP Toolkit 6.5 beta program

Simplify your cloud migration planning with MAP 6.5 Beta

The journey to the cloud is now smoother than ever with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.5 Beta. The MAP Toolkit’s new capabilities help users to securely assess heterogeneous IT environments while enabling the evaluation of workloads for migration to Microsoft’s private and public cloud platforms. Consolidate existing server workloads using the updated Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track capacity planning feature. The revamped Azure Migration feature in MAP 6.5 provides more in-depth analysis of the suitability of migrating on-premises applications to the Windows Azure platform. Other significant new features in MAP 6.5 include the discovery of active Windows devices, Software Usage Tracking for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server.

Key Features and Benefits of MAP 6.5 beta

Discover Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers for migration to SQL Server.

MAP 6.5 Beta adds to the heterogeneous database inventory and reporting capability with Oracle compete and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server. Reporting also provides an estimate of the complexity of migration and suggests candidates for migration to SQL Server. Use this information to determine total cost of ownership for maintaining Oracle and the potential return on investment (ROI) from switching to SQL Server.

Accelerate planning for the private cloud with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Onboarding.

Planning your private cloud just got easier. Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Onboarding, an updated assessment available with MAP 6.5 Beta, provides consolidation guidance and validated configurations with preconfigured Hyper-V Fast Track Infrastructures including computing power, network, and storage architectures. Get a quick analysis of server consolidation on Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Infrastructures to help accelerate your planning of P2V migration to Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track. Each assessment also provides guidance on next steps using Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track.

Assess your software usage and evaluate your licensing needs. NEW!

The Software Usage Tracking feature in MAP 6.5 includes enhancements in terms of product coverage and the ability to track devices. The Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) scenario measures server and client usage for the FEP product, a recent addition to the Microsoft Core Client Access License (CAL) Suite. Active Devices is a new inventory scenario that allows organizations to report Windows devices that are active on the network. This information is useful in Enterprise Agreement scenarios as well as for maintaining Active Directory information for the environment.

Join the MAP Toolkit 6.5 beta program

MAP works with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Security Compliance Manager to help you plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. Learn more.

Visit Microsoft Connect Site for Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit https://connect.microsoft.com/site297

Today, we’re excited to announce the next step in the evolution of Bing for Mobile, with the release of the new Bing for Mobile app for iPhone and Android (coming soon to more devices). Today’s update uses HTML5 to blend the mobile browse experience with the app experience so you get a consistent and fast mobile search experience whether you’re using m.bing.com from your browser or the Bing app.

Rather than tightly binding functions into a mobile client, we want to embrace the drive towards exposing our functions via an HTML5 experience. In order for search to advance, engines need to be able to call functions that are currently ‘hiding’ in apps so we can better help people get done what they are trying to get done. Using HTML5, our goal is to build a mobile experience that leverages the unique capabilities of the different platforms including camera support and voice search, while making the functions the apps can provide consistent across the platforms and – in the future – callable by engines to help people get from searching to doing.

Check out this video where Andy and Stefan talk about this transition to an HTML5 mobile experience:

For more information visit The Bing Team Blog http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/11/02/bing-for-mobile-goes-html5.aspx

System Center solutions help you manage your physical and virtual IT environments across datacenters, desktops, and devices. Using these integrated and automated management solutions, you can be a more productive service provider for your business. System Center captures and aggregates knowledge about systems, policies, processes, and best practices so that you can optimize your infrastructure to reduce costs, improve application availability, and enhance service delivery.

Need more information? See the product details page. Register to access technical product resources at the System Center 2012 Resource Page.

Download All Available System Center 2012 Products:
https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=BC493EC7-42EB-46E7-A17F-BA2A287DE33A&lcid=1033&ci=393&WT.sp=_technet_,dcsjwb9vb00000c932fd0rjc7_5p3t

Select and Download Individual System Center 2012 Products:
https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=B6992B48-082E-42B8-856C-92BCBD32943F&lcid=1033&ci=393&WT.sp=_technet_,dcsjwb9vb00000c932fd0rjc7_5p3t

Available System Center 2012 Products:

• System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RC, built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Beta provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center Orchestrator 2012 RC provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center App Controller 2012 Beta provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.
  Available in these languages: English
  System Requirements >>
• System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.
  Available in these languages: Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish
  System Requirements >>

For more details read the recent STB Blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2011/10/27/announcing-new-system-center-2012-pre-releases-delivering-self-service-application-management-with-the-microsoft-private-cloud.aspx