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Below is a post from Yusuf Mehdi, Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division, announcing details about a major new update to the Xbox dashboard and the launch of Xbox SmartGlass, which brings games, music, TV and movie experiences off the console and onto your phone, tablet and PC.
Steve Ballmer recently stated that 2012 will be “the most epic year in Microsoft’s history.”
Not only do we have major releases coming to the PC, tablet and phone, but we have worked extremely hard to ensure those screens work together with the other major screen in peoples’ lives, the television. People often call out the role Microsoft design style is playing in this new wave of experiences from the company. Whether you are using a phone, PC, tablet or console that is running our software you have an experience that is distinctively Microsoft, elegant, intuitive and integrated.
Now, there is another common thread that ties all of these experiences together – Xbox entertainment.
Today marks the beginning of two major launches for Xbox entertainment.
Last week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stopped by the Microsoft campus in Redmond to celebrate 30 years of the employee Giving Campaign here at the company.
While Bill was here, Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton had the opportunity to sit down with him and get Bill’s thoughts on Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Surface and the exciting wave of products the company is launching this month.
Watch the video below for the full interview with Bill.
Posted by Jeff MeisnerEditor, The Official Microsoft Blog
Below is a post from Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Chief Evangelist, Developer & Platform Evangelism, announcing details around Build 2012 and the opportunity for developers with Windows 8.
Today, we kicked off Build 2012, and invited the developer community to our Redmond campus to share in the tremendous opportunity with our Windows 8 wave of products. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Kevin Gallo, Director of Program Management, Windows Phone, took the stage today to showcase Windows … on the PC, the tablet, the phone, and at work and play.
The developer opportunity on Windows has never been greater. Between expected PC shipment volumes in the coming year and the incredibly flexible terms of the Windows Store, the path to app monetization on Windows represents a huge business opportunity to everyone from the independent developer with a great idea to the world’s biggest companies who develop apps, games and device experiences to reach customers, extend their brands and drive revenue. It’s easy to publish to the Windows Store and Microsoft offers the most developer-friendly revenue sharing terms on the market. Speaking of devices, we’re carrying forward momentum from our recent launch events to showcase the broad array of incredible tablets, notebooks, ultrabooks, desktops, All-in-Ones and phones that our OEM partners are bringing to market, as well as Microsoft Surface, all of which are very much a part of the developer opportunity on Windows.
The following is a blog post by Satya Nadella, President of Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business, discussing how Windows Azure is providing the critical backend capabilities developers need to create amazing new apps for Windows and Windows Phone.
There has never been a more exciting time to be a developer. Today at Microsoft’s Build conference, I had the opportunity to speak to thousands of developers who are key to Microsoft’s goal of reimagining Windows. These are the people who are writing the applications that will light up Windows 8, Windows Phone and Windows Azure. Just as we have reimagined Windows and Windows devices from the chip to the developer platform and the user experience, we have also reimagined Windows from the backend.
Inside Microsoft the cloud momentum and focus is real and palpable. We are building some of the most diverse internet-scale workloads in the industry: Skydrive, Office 365, XBOX Live, Bing, Ad Center, Dynamics…the list goes on. All of this has pushed us to reimagine the Windows backend, to re-examine the core hardware abstraction at the datacenter and multi-datacenter level, as well as building a new modern application platform. We call this the Cloud OS.
October is a magical month at Microsoft. There’s a sense of something powerful happening. There are clues everywhere, such as the frantic bidding for the (often quirky) items in the online auction and the brochures in the kitchens seeking submissions for the annual cat calendar. Or the thousands of employees and their families who take to the streets around our headquarters to participate in the 5k run.
The signs are different but the outcome is always the same – millions of dollars raised to help people in real need.
October is the time when employees on our Redmond campus and in offices across the U.S. unleash their creativity and passion to raise funds for nonprofit and community organizations in their home towns and around the world. This year is our 30th Employee Giving Campaign and today we announced that our U.S. employees have raised $1 billion in cash for more than 31,000 nonprofit and community organizations since the start of the campaign.
In this edition of Weekend Reading, employees achieve historic giving campaign milestone, the new Microsoft Surface – inside and out, and Xbox news: from Xbox Music to Internet Explorer on Xbox to the presidential elections.
All about Surface. Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton says to check out the updated Surface site. The “learn more” section details the specs, materials, display tech and more. Optical bonding, 22 degree kick stand, device walls that measure just 0.65mm, a Touch Cover that’s just 3mm thin and weighs less than half a pound. Get the scoop and specs in Steve’s Wednesday post, and even more scoop in Some questions, and answers about Surface, plus two great videos to watch: The making of Microsoft Surface, featuring the design team behind Surface, and a Learn more about Surface demo video.
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got the launch of Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface, gearing up for Monday’s big Windows Phone 8 event, plus Forza Horizon arrives and Halo 4 sweetens the pot.
Windows 8 arrives. Microsoft yesterday announced the global availability of its popular Windows operating system, Windows 8. Beginning today, consumers and businesses worldwide will be able to experience all that Windows 8 has to offer, including a beautiful new user interface and a wide range of applications with the grand opening of the Windows Store. In her Blogging Windows post, Windows reimagined, Tami Reller, corporate vice president and chief financial officer of Windows and Windows Live, talks about events around the world and the “no compromise” experience of Windows 8. Head on over to the Microsoft News Center for the press release, videos and images. Below, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces the availability of Windows 8 at the Windows 8 launch event at Pier 57 in New York.
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on schools that are transforming education, more Halo 4, and, in case you missed it, the unveiling of MSN for Windows 8 and news that the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 are headed to AT&T.
Halo 4 soundtrack remix contest. Halo 4 is just around the corner and Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton confesses he’s almost as excited about the soundtrack as the game. With Neil Davidge at the helm of the audio accompaniment to the game, it promises to be epic and will be available on October 22. And now you have the chance to create your own bit of epic by remixing one of three tracks Davidge has laid down. Prize winning remixes will be announced Oct. 29 and some sweet Halo 4 gear will get doled out. Head over to Next at Microsoft for details and watch this video to see artists who have already remixed the soundtrack.
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got more news on Windows Phone 8 devices, the Halo 4 frenzy continues and a video of two slick Lenovo Windows 8 PCs.
Windows 8 on Lenovo’s Yoga. Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton files this video in the “too good not to share” category. Courtesy of ABC news – Joanna Stern’s post has all the details on Lenovo’s range of Windows 8 PCs including the IdeaPad Yoga and ThinkPad Twist. Check out these impressive devices for yourself in the video over on Next (courtesy of ABC news).
T-Mobile adds the Nokia Lumia 810 to its Windows Phone 8 lineup. A few weeks ago T-Mobile announced that it’s bringing the Windows Phone 8X by HTC to its portfolio this fall. On Monday, it added the Nokia Lumia 810 to the mix. The Lumia 810 is an exclusive to T-Mobile. Inside you’ll get similar specs as the Lumia 820 – 4.3” ClearBlack display and 8MP Carl Zeiss camera, etc. – but you’ll also get a 1.2MP wide-angle, Skype HD-certified front-facing camera that’s 720p video-capable, a long-lasting 1800mAh battery and optimizations to make it screaming fast on T-Mobile’s 4G network. Catch more on this and other Windows Phone 8 devices from Ben Rudolph on the Windows Phone Blog.
Today, Microsoft announced two new holiday stores scheduled to open on Oct. 26 in New York City’s Times Square and at the Shops at North Bridge in Chicago. These stores will carry a variety of Microsoft-enabled products and offerings, in addition to Answer Desk services. Customers can learn how to get the most out of their software, as well as personalize their Microsoft devices.
Beginning Oct. 26, consumers can shop at the holiday store locations, designed to meet the expected demand for new Microsoft technology available this fall.
Last September, I shared that Microsoft, Kaspersky and Kyrus Inc. took action against the Kelihos botnet, the first case in which Microsoft named a defendant in one of its civil cases involving a botnet. In January, based on new evidence in the case, Microsoft amended its original complaint and named Andrey N. Sabelnikov, a Russian software programmer, as a new defendant in the lawsuit. Today, I am pleased to say we have reached an agreement with Mr. Sabelnikov, and have officially settled and closed the Kelihos botnet case.
Late last week, Microsoft and Andrey Sabelnikov agreed to the following joint statement, which closed the case:
“Microsoft and St. Petersburg software programmer Andrey Sabelnikov have entered into a Settlement Agreement in the matter of Microsoft v. Sabelnikov. During the negotiations, after reviewing the evidence provided by Microsoft and engaging in discussions, the parties have come to an understanding that Mr. Sabelnikov wrote code that was used in the Kelihos botnet code, but the programmer is not the operator of the botnet or involved in its activities.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how a Microsoft study looking into unsecure supply chains led to the discovery of the emerging Nitol botnet, which was hosted by the 3322.org domain. In order to address this threat, Microsoft filed suit to take control of the 70,000 malicious subdomains hosted on 3322.org.
Today, I am pleased to announce that Microsoft has resolved the issues in the case and has dismissed the lawsuit pursuant to the agreement.
In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on Windows 8 General Availability, the Multilingual App Toolkit for developing Windows 8 apps, plus tips for designing Windows Phone apps.
Countdown to Windows 8…On Oct. 26, Windows 8 will be available to people worldwide. And we’re excited! To celebrate, we have several events taking place in cities all around the world. Just a few weeks ago, we held a coding marathon with developers in Bangalore, India—which set the Guinness World Record for Most Participants in a Software Development Marathon in One Location. Coming up, there are launch events happening in cities around the world including Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, New York City and many more. Don’t worry if you didn’t get an invite, we’ll be doing a live webcast of the event, too! To see what else is in store, head over to this post from Brandon LeBlanc on Blogging Windows.
Updating our built-in apps for Windows 8. We’re super excited to be approaching general availability (GA) of Windows 8 and Windows RT. With thousands of new apps in the Store, there are a lot to choose from, and tens of thousands of developers have been very busy around the world creating new apps. Across Microsoft, we’ve been busy since August adding new features and improving the apps that come with Windows, and will be updating these apps before GA. Gabriel Aul from our program management team details the lineup of built-in apps and their features in his post on Building Windows 8.
Xbox 360 kept its lead in the U.S. console market in September, marking the 21st month in a row as the top-selling current-generation console in the U.S.
September 2012 U.S. NPD highlights include:
· Xbox 360 sold 270,000 units in September, more units than any other current-generation console, and held 49 percent share of current-generation console sales in the U.S. This marks the 19th consecutive month that Xbox 360 has held more than a 40 percent share of current-generation console sales in the U.S.
Four big stories out of Microsoft today, including a sneak preview of new Windows 8 tablets, pre-order information for Windows 8 Pro, the second episode of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and an update on the TV White Spaces wireless broadband question.
· Microsoft’s hardware partners are about to unleash a wave of new Windows 8 devices in all shapes and sizes. For consumers and businesses, that breadth offers the chance to find just the right PC no matter their needs. Head on over to the Microsoft News Center to see a slideshow of these slick new devices. To the left is a screenshot of the Asus VivoTa RT.
· Starting today, you can reserve a packaged DVD of the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $69.99 USD ERP* (U.S.) at select retailers. You will want to upgrade your PC to Windows 8 Pro sooner rather than later - this upgrade promotion for Windows 8 Pro both online and at retail runs only through to Jan. 31, 2013.
Below is a post from Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, announcing details around some new resources from Microsoft designed to help you stay up to date and informed with the latest news and data for the Nov. 6 presidential election here in the U.S.
Even though it’s been an especially busy fall for Microsoft, like many people, I’ve followed the U.S. presidential election closely, watching each debate, listening to pundits and keeping up with the latest news. Elections are always noisy things, but this year in particular the sheer volume of information is just incredible – polls, position statements, momentum swings, national and international issues, platoons of fact checkers and counter checkers, economic data, you name it. With so much data, it gets harder and harder to pull signal out of the noise. Luckily, I work for a company that knows a thing or two about handling lots of data :-), so we’ve created some great resources to help everyone make an informed decision on Election Day.
At this point in the election cycle, most voters (and I put myself in this list!) aren’t just looking for *more* information, instead they’re looking for *trusted information*. With that in mind, we’ve created the following election resources:
•Bing Elections
In this hotly contested political season, things like binders and bayonets can take on new meaning in a matter of minutes.
Skype announced Skype for Windows 8 today, bringing together popular Skype features and the new design of Windows 8. The release focuses on delivering an experience that is simpler, faster and easier to use. Skype for Windows 8 includes top Skype features like IM, audio and video calls. The Big Blog has the full story, plus a cool video (see below) that introduces Skype for Windows 8. Skype for Windows 8 will be available on Oct. 26.
Windows Phone fans, have we got some news for you today. AT&T just announced that the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 are officially part of the carrier’s fall lineup. As Ben Rudolph tells you in a Windows Phone Blog post this morning, “You’re going to be able to get the Lumia 920 in-store in Red, Black and White, and through direct order (i.e., online) in Yellow and Cyan.” To the right is a screenshot of the Lumia 920 and 820.
Today’s edition of the Daily Update has a stories on Skype as well as profiles on some of the employees involved with the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which is being held in Baltimore, Maryland from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6.
In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on Windows Phone 8 marketing tools for website and app developers, determining your organization’s Windows 8 adoption path, and taking monsters from scary to terrifying using Kinect for Windows.
Creating a custom Tile to link to your website. This Oct. 18 Windows Phone Developer Blog post guides you through the process of creating a custom pinned Tile that links to your website. This helps you control your brand when users pin your site to their Windows Phone Start screen. This works on phones running Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8. Check it out and start creating your custom Tile in five easy steps. And while you’re at it, grab the refreshed Windows Phone Store badge (see below) to help market your Windows Phone app and help customers find it.
Microsoft today announced the global availability of its popular Windows operating system, Windows 8. Beginning Friday, Oct. 26, consumers and businesses worldwide will be able to experience all that Windows 8 has to offer, including a beautiful new user interface and a wide range of applications with the grand opening of the Windows Store.
As a result of close work with hardware partners, more than 1,000 certified PCs and tablets, including Microsoft Surface, will be available for the launch of Windows 8 — making it the best lineup of PCs ever across the Windows 8 and Windows RT ecosystem.
“We have reimagined Windows and the result is a stunning lineup of new PCs,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on pricing strategies for Windows Phone 8 app developers, a new programming language that gets JavaScript development to scale and more.
How I price my Windows Phone apps. One key question some Windows Phone developers struggle with when putting an app on sale is: how much should I charge? This post from Bernardo Zamora will help you get started. The Windows Phone Dev Center gives developers more control over pricing because Dev Center now lets developers set a unique price for every country or region where paid apps can be sold. This capability, not found in all major app stores, provides an exciting new way to fine-tune your sales strategy. And now that you can price by country and region, you might want to pay closer attention to user reviews from around the world – easily accomplished, thanks to the new translation feature you’ll find at the Dev Center.
TypeScript: JavaScript development at application scale. In addition to supporting industry-standard programming languages, such as C++, Python, and JavaScript, Microsoft has always been at the forefront of creating great programming languages – Visual Basic, C#, and F# being the most recent examples. We create programming languages to solve problems and to enable a broad set of people to build software. On Monday, we introduced a new programming language that solves a very specific problem – getting JavaScript development to scale. That language is TypeScript. Head over to S. Somasegar’s blog to learn more about the TypeScript project, get links to the early preview, online playground and watch the “Introducing TypeScript” video (also below).
In September, Microsoft announced the launch of more than 30 U.S. and Canadian pop-up stores for the holiday season. Today, we are pleased to announce that all Microsoft holiday stores will be open on Oct. 26.
More information about specific store locations and hours can be found here. Additional details about the holiday stores will be made available soon.
In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got Windows Phone Developer news and how-to’s, new tools and tips for a secure and stable cloud environment, plus how we’re delivering the most up-to-date Windows 8 on day one.
Windows Phone developer registration opens in 13 new markets. In Todd Brix’s last post, he talked about how we’re planning to roll out periodic updates to the Windows Phone Dev Center and Store infrastructure that address issues you report and occasionally include small feature enhancements. Well, it’s that time once again, and in addition to another 100 or so fixes, Microsoft is enabling developer registration in 13 new markets via Dev Center with this release: Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mongolia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Timor-Leste. For the rest of the story, head over to The Windows Phone Developer Blog.
Updating Windows 8 for general availability. In an Oct. 9 post, Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, announced the release of a set of improvements to Windows 8 in broad areas of performance, power management and battery efficiency, media playback and compatibility.
Microsoft today released new details about its highly anticipated Microsoft Surface, a tablet PC designed to be the ultimate stage for Windows. Originally unveiled in June, Surface with Windows RT will initially be available in three SKUs: a 32GB version priced at US$499, a 32GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$599 and a 64GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$699.