Get IE8 Activities In Firefox
One of the new features in Internet Explorer 8 is Activities, which lets you contextually use the information on a page with other services, and because it uses some generally open formats, someone’s already adapted it for other browsers. This Firefox extension lets you practically seamlessly use Activities in Firefox, so check it out.
Microsoft’s Extreme Server Makeover Check out this video, spoofing Extreme Home Makeover for the IT world. It’s weird in places, but just watch it, k?
How To Tell If Your PC Supports Hibernation Milo explains how to use POWERCFG.exe to tell if your Windows Vista PC supports hibernation mode, as well as what other power modes your PC supports. It’s an extremely useful tip if you’re running into some power troubleshooting issues.
Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack Now Free
If you’re getting bored of playing Halo online, you’ll be pleased to know that one of its map packs is now free. The price has been dropped 100% on the “Heroic” map pack, giving you three new multiplayer maps for the sweet price of nothing. Enjoy.
Microsoft Releases Popfly Game Creator
Microsoft released a game creator that lets you use Popfly, their free mashup creation tool, to create Silverlight-based games that can run on webpages, Facebook, the Vista Sidebar, pretty much anywhere.
GTA IV Breaks UK Sales Record
Grand Theft Auto 4 sold 631,000 copies on launch day in the UK alone, beating San Andreas’ record from four years ago by over 100 thousand units. The Xbox 360 version beat the PS3 version by 101,000 copies sold, and 360 console sales were up 125%.
Download Free Update to Windows Desktop Search There’s a major update to the search infrastructure used in Windows Vista, and it’s being released as the Windows Search 4.0 Preview. It doesn’t just install on Vista, it works on Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Download the Vista SP1 32-bit version here.
Xbox 360 Coming To A Hospital Near You
Microsoft is talking about some Xbox 360 kiosks it will be sending to children’s hospitals, as part of a partnership with the Companions in Courage Foundation. The kiosks will be pre-loaded with Y-rated TV shows, G-rated movies, E and E10+ games, and be networked and have a connected headset and Live Vision camera.
Live Search News Launches Microsoft has launched Live Search News, a Techmeme style news site that covers all the usual topics, showing the stories getting the most traction. It’s a style that has worked very well for technology news, and seems to make for a very good overall news site at search.live.com/news
Spiral Vista Sidebar Gadget Check out this Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget; it displays a continuously moving spiral on your desktop. Click on it to cycle through six different types of spirals, letting your computer hypnotize you.
Xbox 360 Posts Another Profit
Microsoft has successfully turned the Xbox division into a profitable, healthy division, resulting in its first-ever profit in a quarter that did not feature the release of a Halo game or holiday shopping season. Its a proud achievement for the company, one that was more than half a decade coming, thanks to an 85% jump in revenue, resulting in an operating profit of $89 million.
Top Japan XNA Games
Check out these Japanese XNA games that won some sort of Spring 2008 best of XNA contest. They look pretty good.
Vista Feature Pack Released Microsoft has released the first “Feature Pack” for Windows Vista, adding some wireless features that, while nothing huge, could represent a growing series of feature packs that improve the operating system over the coming months and years. Feature Pack 1 adds support for Bluetooth 2.1 to Vista, as well as a Unified Pairing user interface and updates to Windows Connect Now. Get it here.
Download Windows Live for Windows Mobile
Microsoft has released a free download of the Windows Live for Windows Mobile 6 software that comes pre-loaded on some (but not all) Windows Mobile 6 phones. Pick up the download and get Push Hotmail, synchronized Live Contacts, a Live Search bar for the Home screen and one-click photo uploading to Live Spaces.
Microsoft Fastest To Deploy Patches
A Symantec report on malware discovered in the second half of last year shows that Microsoft was the fastest to respond to discovered software vulnerabilities. On average, Microsoft deployed patches within six days, compared to Apple, which took an average of 79 days, as well as faster than HP, Red Hat or Sun. There’s a lot detail in the article about the type of security vulnerabilities (most are caused by ActiveX), and let’s see how fast you can spot the Rent reference.
Turn Webslices into Vista Sidebar Gadgets
Webslices is a new feature in Internet Explorer 8, which allows you to add specifically selected portions of webpages to the menubar of IE, and have them automatically push updates to you. Sean Lyndersay has taken the Webslice out of the browser, and has designed a Vista Sidebar Gadget that lets you add any Webslice to your desktop. It works well, and Webslices as Gadgets are actually more useful than they are in the browser.
By the by, I learned that the reason the Facebook Webslice doesn’t work is that it needs to be installed while you are running IE as an administrator. That’s really a broken feature, and needs to be fixed for final IE8 release, or developers need to design their Webslices to not work that way.
Free Ford Sync and April Fools Xbox Live Downloads
Two Ford Sync picture packs and a Ford Sync-related dashboard theme have been released free on Xbox Live in the U.S. These are kid-themed, so get ‘em for your kid (or yourself, if you’re cute enough). There are also some April Fools-related pics, available for a limited time.
Secret Confessions Vista Sidebar Gadget This Gadget lets you leave confessions anonymously for random others to read and to read confessions from other users. It has the annoying “feature” of reading the confession out loud with Vista’s text-to-speech system, and no way to turn it off, and the confessions thus far are mostly homophobic or racist, but it’s a great idea that could become something.
Microsoft Sends “Put Up or Shut Up” Message To Yahoo
Microsoft is sick of Yahoo dragging its feet on MS’s proposed acquisition of the internet company, and has published a stern letter from CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo’s board. The letter basically says that Yahoo has had plenty of time to make a decision, and Microsoft wants them to either make a deal or face a hostile takeover. Considering the dragging its feet caused Yahoo to be in this weak position, it should surprise no one that they can’t even lose gracefully.
Data Corruption Bug Fixed in Next Home Server Update The Home Server blog has announced that they have come up with a fix for the data corruption bug that has plagued Home Server users in certain circumstances. Since they are working on Power Pack 1 for Home Server, due for public beta testing next month, they are including the fix with the Power Pack in order to ensure everyone gets it.
Open XML Becomes International Standard
The members of the ISO voted 75% to 14% to approve Microsoft Office 2007’s Open XML file formats as an international standard, removing the barrier erected when the IBM-backed ODF format did the same thing two years ago. The two file formats are now on a level playing field, ensuring that government agencies will choose the better (and more cost-effective) office suite, not the one with ISO certification. ISO controls Open XML now, not Microsoft, and can change any part of the spec, with Microsoft forced to change Office to comply.
Another 11-Cent Dividend Coming To Microsoft Shareholders Microsoft has announced yet another dividend for shareholders, another 11 cents for those invested in the company. Shareholders as of May 15, 2008 will get their dividend on June 12. This will make $4.72 returned to shareholders over the last five years, just over 16% of the stock price.
Silverlight-powered MLB Site Has Disastrous First Week
Baseball season started last week, and the launch of Major League Baseball’s new Silverlight-powered MLB.tv site, where you can pay to watch live games on your computer, had a terrible opening day. With fans paying $20 a month or $120 a year to watch games only on their computer (almost as much as you’d pay to watch a higher quality version on cable or satellite), they were understandably peeved at not getting what they paid for. Now word on whether the problems were on Microsoft’s side or MLB’s, but having such a high-profile launch go bad isn’t a good thing for Microsoft’s important Silverlight technology.
Ribbon Joining Windows 7 User Interface
The Office Ribbon, one of Microsoft biggest software design innovations of recent years, is getting promoted to Windows. The Office UI element will be built into the Windows 7 platform, available for all software developers to access and use in their applications. Quite the vote of confidence, but when you’ve got something good, you should spread it around. Read more about it at Long’s blog.
Xbox Does April Fools Joke Microsoft’s Xbox division sent out an email to all users, informing them of new products from Xbox. They included a wireless helmet, Xbox: The Board Game, a wood-paneled Xbox, and a weather-proof portable Xbox. Also for April Fools Day, Long Zheng “revealed” the lost Windows Vista sounds, uploaded as a collection of Windows 98 sound packs.
Windows Mobile 6.1 Official Launched
At CTIA, Microsoft officially showed off the long talked about Windows Mobile 6.1 update. It includes a new version of the mobile Internet Explorer browser, complete with support for Adobe Flash, Silverlight, H.264. There’s also a new Getting Started Center, the ability to handle more things from the home screen, better touch screen and small screen UI features and other updates.
Microsoft Videos Launching Microsoft has launched a beta preview of Microsoft Videos, a new Silverlight-powered video site that collects the many videos Microsoft creates. Whether you’re an IT pro or developers looking for technical videos, or a gamer looking for video game videos, or a consumer looking for videos about the latest software and Media Center stuff, it’s all there are running in glorious Silverlight.
40% Of Vista Crashes By Major Graphics Chips Proof is out that it is the graphics processor industry that is ruining computing. Data from Microsoft shows that 40% of crashes in Windows Vista were caused by graphics drivers from ATI and NVidia, with 75% of those NVidia’s fault. Since Vista was released, those two companies have been the most negligient in serving their customers with decent drivers, and everyone is suffering as a result. I wish Intel got serious about graphics, because ATI and NVidia have lost any goodwill they had with me an many other users.
Free Portal Song “Still Alive” for Rock Band
Tomorrow, Harmonix will begin giving away “Still Alive”, the end credits song from Valve’s hit game Portal. While tomorrow is April Fools’ day, the song isn’t worth buying for most gamers, and we already know it’s been formatted for the game, so the announcement should likely be legit. Xboxers, download your free song tomorrow (PS3 gamers have to wait a few weeks due to system upgrades) and thank the Rock Gaming Gods.
Here’s a video of the guy who wrote “Still Alive” playing the song in the game last month:
Clippy On The Simpsons
Clippy, the Microsoft Office paperclip, isn’t dead! He was on this recent episode of the Simpsons:
Microsoft May Counter Justin Long With Johnny Knoxville Rumors are that Microsoft is preparing an advertising campaign designed to combat Apple’s smarmy Get A Mac ads starring Justin Long and John Hodgman. In the ads, Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame would dos something incredibly stupid with his computer, like dropping and destroying his PC while performing a stunt, but is saved by Windows and automatic backups. If done smartly, the ads could work, especially by not being as condescending as Apple’s ads.
(via)
Live Contacts Sharing With Facebook, Bebo, Others
One scary part about signing up for a new social networking site is when it asks for your Hotmail/Gmail/AIM password in order to import your contacts. You can never be sure if you can trust that site with such valuable info, which is why it’s great that Microsoft is working to take the scary out.
They’ve signed partnerships with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn, letting you securely invite Live contacts to be your friends, and invite your friends on those services to chat with you on Live Messenger. The only place you enter your Live ID password is a Live.com website, keeping your valuable info out of everyone else’s grubby hands.
Make Your Own PhotoZoom Collections with Silverlight Microsoft has launched a website that lets you take advantage of their hosting and technology, creating big photo collections that users can zoom in and out of as easily as a Google Map. Called PhotoZoom, it utilizes technology based on SeaDragon/Deep Zoom and PhotoSynth, runs in Silverlight and is hosted on Microsoft’s servers. You can try out a sample album here, or enjoy it embedded below:
How To Reclaim Space Lost To Vista SP1
If you installed Windows Vista Service Pack 1, there are files sitting on your hard drive from the install that you can just go ahead and junk. Unless you’ve got a mission critical program that doesn’t work under SP1, you have absolutely no reason to want to uninstall that, so all that space should just be freed up right away. To run the SP1 cleaner, open a command prompt (you may need administrator right) and type “vsp1cln.exe”. I got back 790 megabytes, your mileage may vary.
Zune Engraving No Longer Free Microsoft has ended the roughly five month free period for buying a Zune with free engraving from ZuneOriginals.net. If you want a Zune “tattooed”, laser engraved with some pretty cool designs, it’ll cost you $10 for a simpler design or $15 for a full on “Artist Series” design (plus the cost of the actual Zune).
Gatineau Renamed adCenter Analytics
Microsoft’s Project (codename) Gatineau finally has grown up to a real product name: adCenter Analytics. The new name reflects the strong link between Analytics and adCenter, as well as the fact that Analytics was created to help adCenter advertisers do a better job getting conversions out of their ads. The beta was also refreshed, removing the $5 signup fee, adding importing of adCenter/AdWords/Yahoo data, a tree map view of site traffic, period comparisons and more.
Microsoft Fifth Biggest User Of H-1B Visas BusinessWeek has a list of the companies that have received the most petitions for H-1B visa approval, used to allow foreign professionals to stay in the United States and hold jobs. The fifth company on the list is Microsoft, with 959 petitions in 2007 alone, a number that explains exactly why Microsoft is continually petitioning the federal government to allow more visas than the current 100% full system allows for. Google is #16 with 248, IBM is #40/184, Oracle #92/113, and Yahoo is #105/108.
(via Digg)
Microsoft Produces Limited Edition GTA IV Xbox 360 Microsoft has released a very limited stock of Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360 Elite consoles, 500 to be exact, complete with a GTA IV design on the side panel and a briefcase full of peripherals. The consoles are individually numbered, so you know how limited of an edition it is, and the briefcase has wireless controller, ChatPad, headset, camera, remote, and charge kit.
Vista Service Pack 1 Released Microsoft has finalized the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, putting the major update to Vista in the hands of users. Some users are getting it pushed to them via Windows Update, and if you don’t have it yet, just go here to download the standalone 434 megabyte installer for 32-bit versions of Vista. This link will get you the 64-bit version.
If you aren’t getting Vista SP1 through Automatic Updates, and are not even getting it offered as an option, it is likely because your computer is failing a number of prerequisites. One of them is driver compatibility, and since Sigmatel audio drivers aren’t worth crap on Vista, practically anyone with one of those chips in their systems won’t get SP1 without installing it manually. Read more here.
Microsoft Launches AdCenter Community Microsoft has launched AdCenterCommunity.com, a website for its growing AdCenter advertiser base to to learn about ways to run better ad campaigns, with niche-specific blogs, user forums, and other community features. The community offers advice on the AdCenter API, Analytics, and represents an effort by Microsoft to distinguish itself from Google AdWords, which has notoriously poor communication with with its advertisers.
Mac Office 2008 Gets Updated Microsoft released a patch for Office 2008, fixing problems that could cause Office programs to crash or otherwise stop responding. It also improves security, keeps restricted users from having unauthorized access to Office program files, fixes a blank page printing problem, fixes font substitution issues, adds support for secondary displays, and many other fixes and improvements.
Microsoft’s List of Potential Yahoo Board Members
If Microsoft winds up completing its effort to buy Yahoo through a hostile takeover, they’ll need to nominate a full new board of directors. A part of that list has leaked out, naming four of the ten executives Microsoft may place on the board. They are:
Edward H. Meyer - former CEO, Grey Advertising
John Chapple - CEO, Nextel Partners
Tom Freston - former President, Viacom
Jaynie Studenmund - Former CEO of eHarmony
Yahoo is reportedly finally holding talks with Microsoft, having a meeting to let Microsoft explain its offer and put some of its vision forward. Even if Yahoo doesn’t want to give in and except Microsoft’s offer, the offer may be impossible to ignore, especially if Microsoft raises the amount it is willing to pay. With other potential buyers dropping out, it’s certainly something they should consider.
Virtual Earth Implemented in Flash
Like Windows Live Maps? Like the compatibility and ease of Flash applications? Then you’ll like that AFC Components has added the Virtual Earth API to its UMAP control. You can see Virtual Earth embedded right here:
Sony PS3 for $100 Off
If you are looking to go with a Sony PlayStation 3, you might be glad to know that the SonyStyle store is offering $100 off the purchase of a 40gb PS3 with a new Sony card, making it just $300. That’s a good enough deal even if you find Sony as evil as many do, just to get a good Blu-Ray player and a small number of decent exclusive games.
Novell Free To Sue Over Long-Dead WordPerfect The Supreme Court has ruled to allow Novell to go ahead and sue Microsoft for alleged antitrust infractions involving WordPerfect, which Novell sold 12 years ago. Novell is complaining that Microsoft used its Windows monopoly to depress sales of WordPerfect, resulting in the product dropiing in value from $1.2 billion in 1994 to $170 million in 1996. Novell only owned WordPerfect for two years, and much of the failures of WordPerfect that allowed Microsoft Word to trounce it in the marketplace occured before they bought the product, but the case is apparently strong enough to go trial. We’ll see if it’s strong enough to actually win.
OneCare Gets Marketing Campaign
Microsoft has a new marketing slogan for Windows Live OneCare, its all-in-one security suite. The tagline is, “Don’t Worry, We Took OneCare Of It” and the ads typically featuring some nasty virus it “took OneCare” of. You have to read it a few times before the sentence makes sense, but the ads are cute. I’m pretty sure I saw one of these ads in the Post yesterday.
Flash Coming To Windows Mobile Microsoft has licensed Adobe Flash for Windows Mobile. Specifically, Adobe Flash Lite will be built into Internet Explorer Mobile in future versions of WinMobile as a plugin, so webpages with Flash should, for the most part, work as intended. That means full YouTube for Windows Mobile users, even as Apple complains that Flash doesn’t work on its devices. Boo hoo. I’d look forward to seeing Flash in Windows Mobile 7, but that’s pure speculation.
Become a Windows Mobile Fan on Facebook
Facebook has a feature that lets you become a fan of entertainers, celebrities or politicians, but apparently you can be a fan of a product as well. You can now become a fan of Windows Mobile and show your love for the platform. I’m in. Just head here while signed in to Facebook and click “Become a Fan”.
Live Spaces Loses 15% Of Visitors
Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft’s once high-flying social network/blogging platform, slipped badly in the last year. It’s still technically the biggest blogging platform around, but it failed to keep up with MySpace and Facebook, its real competitors, losing 15% of its unique visitors in the U.S. in the last 12 months. Live Spaces lost 1.4 million unique visitors, coming half a million of LinkedIn, which rose 271% last year. Guess the buzz on Live Spaces is over, and Microsoft has some work to do to keep the rest from leaving.
Bill Gates on Running A Good Startup
A student at the University of Waterloo stood up and asked a question of Bill Gates during a roundtable breakfast at the University (no, it was not a Q&A session, she just really wanted to ask), wondering how he had the courage to start Microsoft at 17. Gates answer says a lot about how he values his employees, and could be a good lesson for startups.
At 17 I didn’t have much to lose. I promised my parents that I would go back to university if things didn’t pan out. But I did worry about all those people who had spouses and children. They depended on the business succeeding. That’s what worried me at night. So I made sure that I had enough money in the bank to pay everyone’s salary for a year if none of my customers came through. That’s how I got through it. Eventually there came a time, though, when we needed to hire 30 people, and that was a real crisis. I really didn’t want to expand without a financial safety net in place. Ultimately, I compromised and said yes, go ahead and hire. But I want to know immediately when the increased revenues offset the costs of paying everyone a year’s salary … that way I could sleep again.
Live Maps released a nice update last week, adding a good number of 3D cities and a ton of new or updated bird’s eye view cities. The new or enhanced 3D cities:
France
Vannes
Great Britain
Southampton
Colorado
Pueblo
Connecticut
Bridgeport
Stamford
Maine
Portland
Michigan
Battle Creek
Grand Rapids
Warren
Missouri
Springfield
Montana
Billings
New Jersey
Trenton
Nevada
Henderson
Sunrise Manor
New York
Rochester
Syracuse
Pennsylvania
Allentown
Washington
Olympia
Yakima
Wisconsin
La Crosse
Madison
And the new/updated bird’s eye cities, first in the U.S., then Europe:
Microsoft has announced price cuts for the two versions of Windows Vista that come with Media Center and other features. Windows Vista Home Premium, the version that adds Aero, Media Center, Tablet support, Meeting Space, SideShow, scheduled backups, DVD Maker, three more games, and high def Movie Maker, drops from $159 for an upgrade to $129, just $30 above the price of the under-powered Home Basic.
Windows Vista Ultimate, the version that has everything in Premium plus Complete PC Backup, Fax & Scan, Remote Desktop, and BitLocker Drive Encryption, drops even further, going from $299 down to $219. The price cuts are only for the versions in retail stores, which is fine, since that’s the version you’d be buying anyways.
In spite of the sales of millions of copies of Vista, Microsoft knows the premium versions aren’t selling as well as they could. It’s notoriously hard to convince consumers to pay even a little extra, and pricing the version with Media Center sixty bucks higher than Home Basic creates a significant barrier to entry. Lowering the price of XP Media Center back in 2004 resulted in an increase from 1 million copies a year to several tens of millions, and with $30 in extra revenue per copy, every increase of ten million copies is worth $300 million.
Microsoft is making a ton of announcements pre Mix ‘08. Let’s go through them:
The Windows Live Messenger API - releasing in beta, this lets developers build Messenger right into websites, offering most of the core Messenger features right on the page.
Silverlight Streaming has been updated, going from alpha to beta, up to 10 gigabytes of storage space and 100 megabyte file sizes. Files stream now at 1,400 kbps, with tit free as long as you use under 500,000 minutes per month. File manipulation is also improved, with the ability to use Windows Explorer, plus support for Visual Studio 2008 with Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio.
The Windows Live Contacts API allows users to use their Windows Live contact info with any site while retaining control of their information. Also, Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication allows web apps to request permission from users to access their information.
The Windows Live Photo API allows full control of photos on Live Spaces, without the need to go to the Spaces site. Third party sites can show Spaces photos, thumbnails and download links.
There are two new example Windows Live QuickApps, plus updates to Tafiti.
A private Windows feedback survey sent by Microsoft included a mockup of what might be a planned feature for Windows 7, the next version of Windows, currently in development. As far as I can tell from the screenshot, programs would be able to feature their own extended menus coming out of their programs automatic placement on the Start Menu.
My best guess is that the extended menu features recent documents in the case of software like Microsoft Word, and favorite websites when dealing with Internet Explorer. If this becomes a feature, expect all software to get the option to include their recent documents in the Start Menu, or possibly other options. Looks like a cool feature, one that will hopefully make its way out in Windows 7.
LiveSide is reporting that a new version of the Outlook Connector, which allows Hotmail accounts to be used in Microsoft Outlook, will add the ability to sync with Windows Live Calendar, for free (this was previously a Premium feature). Users will be able to access and presumably edit their Live Calendars in Outlook, which is a great convenience.
I’m really excited with the work Microsoft’s put into Live Calendar, but as an Outlook user, I can’t messily go back and forth. When this new version comes out, I will finally get the best of both worlds, great desktop calendaring and great web-based calendaring. If I can sync my regular Outlook calendar to Live Calendar, I’ll be a really happy boy.
Windows Live Search had a good January, according to ComScore, gaining 97 million new searches from the previous month, a gain of 10.5% to 1.024 billion queries. The overall industry grew 7.9%, giving Microsoft a negligible market share gain, though it didn’t suffer a shift of nearly a point lost to Google, like Yahoo did. Ask.com and AOL enjoyed double-digit search query gains.
Joe Wilcox is discussing the planned release of a version of Windows Live OneCare for servers. OneCare, Microsoft’s all-in-one security suite, will handle similar tasks similar to the desktop version, including server anti-virus, and will be bundled with Small Business Server and Essential Server 2008, along with a one-year subscription to Forefront for Exchange. As Joe points out, Microsoft would like to give OneCare for free with Windows, as well as Windows Server, but it can’t, because your politicians “protected” you from free software bundling with their antitrust legislation.
Windows Live SkyDrive, Microsoft’s free online storage service, has been released out of beta. SkyDrive’s also been pushed out into 38 countries, and storage has been severely increased, going from 1 gigabyte to 5 gigabytes. The countries were you can now get SkyDrive and enjoy the benefits of free online storage and file sharing:
Great Britain, India, the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.
Installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 soon? Before you do, check out Microsoft’s list of software that loses functionality after SP1 is installed. Luckily, in most cases an upgrade is available that fixes the problem. The full details are here, but here’s a list of software listed:
Check out 
