Kinect's Sales Put It into Guinness World Records

Microsoft 's Kinect is now in the Guinness World Records. The global authority on record breaking awarded that honor to the company's successful gestures-in-air controller for being the fastest-selling electronics device ever, selling an average of 133,333 units daily since its launch. To top things off, Microsoft announced Wednesday that the Kinect has sold 10 million units worldwide through the end of last month.

The Kinect's phenomenal sales record, including eight million units sold in the first 60 days since its release on November 4, outstrips "both the iPhone and the iPad for the equivalent periods after launch," according to Guinness.

Five Million Projected

When it was released, Microsoft had projected selling five million units through the end of last year. Kinect's sales are a major factor in the 55 percent increase in revenue in the company's Entertainment and Devices division for the last quarter of last year, and in the projected 50 percent rise expected for the current quarter.

By contrast, Sony's new motion-sensing controller for its PlayStation, Move, has sold about three million units through the end of 2010, since its launch in September.

Despite all of the promotional hand-waving that Microsoft did to launch its hands-free game controller, Kinect, the company may have underestimated its appeal. In addition to sales to game players, the Kinect has instigated a cottage industry of radical experimentation by developers that could have a major impact on user interaction with a wide range of non-game devices. With the Kinect, users control the device through in-the-air gestures and motion, as well as voice commands.

One university researcher, for instance, has used the two cameras in the device to gain control of the 3D software and turn the unit into a 3D camera. In Kinect, one of the cameras shoots video, while the other measures depths, resulting in a 640 x 480 video stream and 320 x 240 depth stream.

TVs, Windows

Others have gotten the Kinect to work with Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Linux computers. Israeli company PrimeSense, which makes the chip controlling motion-sensing in the peripheral, has said that it is licensing its chip for other uses, such as controlling PC functionality in TVs.

After the first experiments, Microsoft had issued a statement that it "does not condone the modification of its products," and that "numerous hardware and software safeguards" are intended to reduce the chances of "product tampering." It later noted that, in fact, Kinect software and hardware were not in fact modified, but only the software in the main device that interacted with the Kinect, and it has since embraced the research.

Michael Gartenberg, Research Director at analyst at the Gartner Group, said "ten million units is impressive and shows that the Kinect is not just a peripheral for the Xbox but is leading to an evolution of the Xbox platform itself."

He added that ten million units "will resonate very, very well" with developers, as will the company's recent release of a software development kit and its current efforts to integrate the technology into an upcoming version of Windows.

Source

Fujitsu Stylistic Windows 7 slate: Microsoft's latest, greatest iPad competitor?

Windows 7 slates and tablets haven’t exactly knocked customers off their feet. But there’s a new Windows 7 slate coming to town (starting in April this year) that Microsoft is hoping may give the company at least a temporary answer to Apple’s iPad and the various Android slates coming to market this year.

Fujitsu shared more details on February 24 about the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550, which got an early debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011. The coming slate, based on the Intel “Oak Trail” Atom processor, runs Windows 7 Professional. It supports pen-based input, along with touch, and offers an optional smartcard reader for extra security, according to Fujitsu’s press release about the business/enterprise-focused product.

Fujitsu is promising up to 10 hours of battery life (using a large-capacity battery), and the press release says the device weighs 1.5 pounds (690 grams) when a regular-capacity battery is inserted.

There’s no U.S. pricing (or availability information) for the Stylistic Q550 yet. The touch-only version goes on sale in Japan in April for JPY 90,000 ($1,100) and the touch/pen version will hit in May for JPY 100,000 ($1,222).

Here’s Fujitsu’s latest promotional video showing off the coming device:

In keeping with Microsoft’s own iPad-compete guidance, Fujitsu is highlighting the ability of the coming slates to be managed and secured by corporate IT departments as a differentiation point from the iPad and other consumer-focused slates. From Fujitsu press release:

“As enterprises struggle to keep consumer smartphones and tablets off their corporate networks to avoid security breaches, Fujitsu is taking an alternative approach with the introduction of a companion device designed for maximum interoperability with business environments. Seamless integration is provided thanks to use of the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Additional licensing and rollout costs are capped since the slate PC uses the same software already deployed in enterprise infrastructures.”

Microsoft is touting the ability of Windows-based slates and tablets to help customers keep their IP secure, demonstrate compliance to auditors and lock stolen devices.

The battery life and weight of this device sound good to me, but the price tag is still on the high side. As I’ve noted before, Microsoft’s “real” answer to the iPad isn’t likely to happen until its partners start cranking out Windows 8 slates. Until then, do you think the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 has a chance to keep Apple from further infiltrating Microsoft’s installed base?

Article from: ZDNET

Apple pips Microsoft as world's biggest

Apple shot past Microsoft as the world's biggest tech company based on market value in overnight trade in the US - the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.

Apple's shares rose as much 2.8 per cent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, as Microsoft shares floundered, briefly pushing its market value above $US229 billion ($281 billion), ahead of its longtime rival.

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Both stocks ended down after a late-day sell-off, but Apple emerged ahead with a market value of about $US222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion, according to Reuters data.

Apple shares closed down 0.4 per cent at $US244.11 on Nasdaq, while Microsoft fell 4 per cent to a seven-month low of $US25.01.

Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.

The last time Apple had a higher market value than Microsoft was December 19, 1989, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from its hey-day 1990s. Its stock is down 20 per cent from 10 years ago.

Apple, which struggled for many years to get its products into the mainstream, resorted to a $US150 million investment from the much larger Microsoft in 1997 in order to keep it afloat. At that time, Microsoft's market value was more than five times that of Apple.

Microsoft still leads Apple in sales. In the latest quarter, Microsoft reported $US14.5 billion in revenue compared with Apple's $US13.5 billion.

Cupertino, California-based Apple is now the second-largest company on the Standard & Poor's 500 index by market value, behind energy behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp.

Source: smh.com.au

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 SP1

Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 bundles all bug fixes to date, but includes few new features.

By Mathew J. Schwartz ,  InformationWeek 

Microsoft on Tuesday released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2. Included in SP1 are numerous stability, compatibility, and performance improvements, although there are few new features. Specific refinements include increased scalability and availability for DirectAccess, better support for managed service accounts in extranet environments, performance tuning for authentication by cloud-based service providers, and better storage failover clustering. 

This service pack release follows a public test release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in July 2010.
Helpfully, as with all service packs, this release bundles all security fixes to date. "Microsoft has shipped 796 bug fixes and security improvements to Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2," said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor at Sophos Canada, in a blog post. While many of these updates have been available via Windows Update, having them all in one place will simplify the patching and upgrade process for many organizations.
Microsoft said the update process requires about 30 minutes, including a reboot at the halfway mark. The size of the upgrade varies from 44 MB to 1 GB, based on the chosen installation method. In terms of hard drive space, 750 MB of free disk space is required to install the update via Windows Update on a 32-bit machine. The free space requirements rise to 4.1 GB of free space for a 32-bit machine, and 7.4 GB for a 64-bit machine, when using an SP1 installation DVD or after downloading the installer from Microsoft's Web site.
SP1 also includes two new features for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V users and RemoteFX.
According to Microsoft, "Dynamic Memory allows for memory on a host machine to be pooled and dynamically distributed to virtual machines as necessary. Memory is dynamically added or removed based on current workloads, and is done so without service interruption." Wisniewski said that heavily loaded Windows 2008 R2 systems should see efficiency improvements when using Dynamic Memory.
The other new feature, RemoteFX, is based on technology that Microsoft acquired from Calista that is meant to provide a desktop-like media experience when streaming video or 3D effects via a LAN.
The release of the first service pack for a Windows operating system historically marked the point at which businesses would begin to upgrade en masse. But as of January 2011, according to analytics firm NetApplications.com, Windows 7 already accounted for 22% of the global operating system market, compared with 55% for Windows XP, 12% for Windows Vista, and 4% for Mac OS X.

Cutting-edge attacks like Stuxnet and Zeus will be the everyday exploits of the future. Here's what you need to know. That and more -- including five best practices to improve the budgeting process for security spending -- in the debut all-digital issue of Dark Reading. Download the issue now (free registration required).

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219123  

Microsoft & Dell Introduce SaaS to Hospitals

Thursday, February 24, 2011, 5:13:57 AM

Microsoft (MSFT) and Dell (DELL) have announced this week that they will combine efforts to improve the state of analytics and business intelligence in Community Hospitals.

The new services will be delivered by Dell as a hosted online service and will feature their cloud computing infrastructure and informatics, analytics and consulting services as well as Microsofts health intelligence platform, Microsoft Amalga.

The service will initially feature in four hospitals, Lawrence Hospital Center, Northern Westchester Hospital, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center and White Plains Hospital, with the potential of expanding further with the help of the Stellaris Health Network.

Speaking on behalf of Microsoft Health Solutions Group, general manager of business development Nate McLemore, says "Amalga is able to deliver data in a variety of different ways. Often, business intelligence is a static snapshot of a period of time, so what we''re able to do is deliver data in near, real time, and bring about care improvement and performance management […] We will begin to deliver data and reports at the point of care, and see in near, real time what''s occurring at the health network."
Source: www.saasdir.com

Microsoft, What About The 5% Windows Phone 7s You Don’t Mention?

By: Anton D. Nagy | 2:31 AM 24-Feb-11

Even if you are not a Windows Phone 7 user, you most probably learned by now that Microsoft has started pushing out a first Windows Phone 7 update, a prerequisite if you will for the upcoming NoDo to be out in March. On the same note, you probably also heard that there were some issues involved and Microsoft has made its stance public on the first ever Windows Phone 7 patch roll-out process.

According to Microsoft, 90% of the people who actually got the update notification and started the process have managed to finalize it with success. 90% is a good number if you refer to nine people out of ten, but on a much larger scale, like in the range of the 2 million mentioned as a number describing the Windows Phone 7s that shipped, the 10% failure rate represents an alarming 200,000. For all that matters, "of the 10 percent who did experience a problem, nearly half failed for two basic reasons—a bad Internet connection or insufficient computer storage space". Does that leave us with 100,000 bricks?

To be even more truthful, let’s third the numbers as there are currently many Windows Phone 7 users out there that didn’t get the notification – including the undersigned – and we get over 66,000 failures out of which 33,000 possible bricks? That’s a lot of angry users returning devices for a warranty fix. By the way, does warranty cover that? Or is there a happy ending to this story and users managed to either apply the update successfully or revert to the previous state? Hopefully Microsoft will manage to fix the issues – even more because it’s been rumored to halt the update for Samsung Windows Phone 7 devices reported to experience most problems, fact confirmed later by Microsoft.

On a side note, there appear to be a couple of key words used with reference to non-U.S. devices: "Everyone with a Windows Phone 7 in a supported market will receive a notification when new updates become available". Yes, "in a supported market"! Does that mean that we will see some – at least initial – Windows Phone 7 fragmentation on devices outside the 17 countries where the Marketplace is active (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and United States)?

Source: Windows Phone Blog (1),(2) 

Microsoft to release free Kinect SDK

Wants academics to work not play with it

By Lawrence Latif

Tue Feb 22 2011, 10:26

SOFTWARE HOUSE Microsoft will push its Xbox 360 Kinect sensor by releasing a software development kit (SDK) for it.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect gaming sensor has proved to be a hit for the firm ever since its release, with the company selling millions. While gamers enjoy jumping around in front of their telly, software developers have been eager to gain access to the Kinect sensor and it seems for once Microsoft has decided to embrace the community, saying it will release a non-commercial SDK for Kinect in the Spring.
The SDK will give developers access to the Kinect's audio technology and most importantly direct control of the sensor device.
Hackers had already cracked Microsoft's legendary security and gained access to Kinect. However the results were somewhat hit and miss, and without appropriate documentation they were not reliable enough to support academic research, one area where Microsoft is hoping the SDK will be used.
Microsoft's decision to offer a free SDK for the Kinect should, it hopes, help researchers work on natural user interfaces, an area where Microsoft has been doing research for years.
It seems that Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, has realised that by working with the community rather than against it, Microsoft can advance how users interact with computers connected to the Vole's Kinect gadget. µ

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2027831/microsoft-release-free-kinect-sdk#ixzz1Eh7C4DvL
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Microsoft Visio

Microsoft Visio is a designing and diagramming tool that can be used to draw block diagrams and pictorial representations of various processes. MS Visio is mainly used to represent complex data flows and process flows in the form of easy to understand drawings. The drawings created in MS Visio can be imported to other MS Office documents such as Word and Excel.
To create drawings in MS Visio, a person need not be a highly skilled programmer. People who have sufficient expertise in using other MS Office products can easily start using MS Visio. Though other Microsoft products such as Word and PowerPoint allow the user to create diagrams, the user will be able to create only basic diagramming flows using these products. MS Visio can be used to create complex data and process flows such as business process diagrams, building diagrams and network diagrams. This software consists of a number of templates that can be used to build these diagrams.
When using Microsoft Visio, the user generally has to choose a particular template that best fits their use. The template could be for building a network diagram or for creating building plans. After the template has been selected, the user will get a toolbox containing all the relevant shapes needed for creating the drawings relevant to that template.
The user has to select the shapes from the toolbox and place them in the main drawing area available in MS Visio. After the required shapes have been placed, the user has to connect the shapes to build a basic block diagram, which represents the underlying process or data flow. There are also smart shapes available in the tool box. These shapes arrange themselves according to the type of business process for which it is being built.
The latest version of the MS Visio that is available in the market is MS Visio 2010, which was released along with the MS Office 2010 pack. There are three versions of the MS Visio software that is available to customers. These three versions are the standard version, professional version and premium version.
Some of the common block diagrams such as the cause and effect diagram, organizational charts and project management diagrams are available in all the three versions. Some of the specialized diagrams such as pivot diagrams, six-sigma templates, share-point workflow templates and engineering diagrams are not available in the standard version and are only available in the higher versions.
Microsoft Visio is a designing and diagramming tool that can be used to draw block diagrams and pictorial representations of various processes. MS Visio is mainly used to represent complex data flows and process flows in the form of easy to understand drawings. The drawings created in MS Visio can be imported to other MS Office documents such as Word and Excel.
To create drawings in MS Visio, a person need not be a highly skilled programmer. People who have sufficient expertise in using other MS Office products can easily start using MS Visio. Though other Microsoft products such as Word and PowerPoint allow the user to create diagrams, the user will be able to create only basic diagramming flows using these products. MS Visio can be used to create complex data and process flows such as business process diagrams, building diagrams and network diagrams. This software consists of a number of templates that can be used to build these diagrams.
When using Microsoft Visio, the user generally has to choose a particular template that best fits their use. The template could be for building a network diagram or for creating building plans. After the template has been selected, the user will get a toolbox containing all the relevant shapes needed for creating the drawings relevant to that template.
The user has to select the shapes from the toolbox and place them in the main drawing area available in MS Visio. After the required shapes have been placed, the user has to connect the shapes to build a basic block diagram, which represents the underlying process or data flow. There are also smart shapes available in the tool box. These shapes arrange themselves according to the type of business process for which it is being built.
The latest version of the MS Visio that is available in the market is MS Visio 2010, which was released along with the MS Office 2010 pack. There are three versions of the MS Visio software that is available to customers. These three versions are the standard version, professional version and premium version.
Some of the common block diagrams such as the cause and effect diagram, organizational charts and project management diagrams are available in all the three versions. Some of the specialized diagrams such as pivot diagrams, six-sigma templates, share-point workflow templates and engineering diagrams are not available in the standard version and are only available in the higher versions.
Microsoft Visio is a designing and diagramming tool that can be used to draw block diagrams and pictorial representations of various processes. MS Visio is mainly used to represent complex data flows and process flows in the form of easy to understand drawings. The drawings created in MS Visio can be imported to other MS Office documents such as Word and Excel.
To create drawings in MS Visio, a person need not be a highly skilled programmer. People who have sufficient expertise in using other MS Office products can easily start using MS Visio. Though other Microsoft products such as Word and PowerPoint allow the user to create diagrams, the user will be able to create only basic diagramming flows using these products. MS Visio can be used to create complex data and process flows such as business process diagrams, building diagrams and network diagrams. This software consists of a number of templates that can be used to build these diagrams.
When using Microsoft Visio, the user generally has to choose a particular template that best fits their use. The template could be for building a network diagram or for creating building plans. After the template has been selected, the user will get a toolbox containing all the relevant shapes needed for creating the drawings relevant to that template.
The user has to select the shapes from the toolbox and place them in the main drawing area available in MS Visio. After the required shapes have been placed, the user has to connect the shapes to build a basic block diagram, which represents the underlying process or data flow. There are also smart shapes available in the tool box. These shapes arrange themselves according to the type of business process for which it is being built.
The latest version of the MS Visio that is available in the market is MS Visio 2010, which was released along with the MS Office 2010 pack. There are three versions of the MS Visio software that is available to customers. These three versions are the standard version, professional version and premium version.
Some of the common block diagrams such as the cause and effect diagram, organizational charts and project management diagrams are available in all the three versions. Some of the specialized diagrams such as pivot diagrams, six-sigma templates, share-point workflow templates and engineering diagrams are not available in the standard version and are only available in the higher versions.
Microsoft Visio is a designing and diagramming tool that can be used to draw block diagrams and pictorial representations of various processes. MS Visio is mainly used to represent complex data flows and process flows in the form of easy to understand drawings. The drawings created in MS Visio can be imported to other MS Office documents such as Word and Excel.
To create drawings a person need not be a highly skilled programmer. People who have sufficient expertise in using other MS Office products can easily start using MS Visio. Though other Microsoft products such as Word and PowerPoint allow the user to create diagrams, the user will be able to create only basic diagramming flows using these products. MS Visio can be used to create complex data and process flows such as business process diagrams, building diagrams and network diagrams. This software consists of a number of templates that can be used to build these diagrams.
The user generally has to choose a particular template that best fits their use. The template could be for building a network diagram or for creating building plans. After the template has been selected, the user will get a toolbox containing all the relevant shapes needed for creating the drawings relevant to that template.
The user has to select the shapes from the toolbox and place them in the main drawing area available. After the required shapes have been placed, the user has to connect the shapes to build a basic block diagram, which represents the underlying process or data flow. There are also smart shapes available in the tool box. These shapes arrange themselves according to the type of business process for which it is being built.
The latest version available in the market is MS Visio 2010, which was released along with the MS Office 2010 pack. There are three versions of the software that is available to customers. These three versions are the standard version, professional version and premium version.
Some of the common block diagrams such as the cause and effect diagram, organizational charts and project management diagrams are available in all the three versions. Some of the specialized diagrams such as pivot diagrams, six-sigma templates, share-point workflow templates and engineering diagrams are not available in the standard version and are only available in the higher versions.

Computer Training Solutions provide Visio Courses and PowerPoint Courses

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Claire_Jarrett

Tripartite Confrontation of Phone Industry Is Formed With the New Alliance of Nokia and Microsoft

Yesterday Nokia held a meeting in London announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft. The two companies will build a new "mobile ecosystem". Nokia will implement Windows Phone 7 in its cellphones, and will participate in the development of Windows Phone 7 platform.
Google executive, Vic Gundotra, teased about this alliance as "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle".
Sorry, Vic, we are not on the same page!
I still believe that Nokia and Microsoft are not turkeys to be slaughtered, by teaming up, they two still have opportunity to catch up with Google and Apple.
Nokia and Microsoft still have competition advantage in the industry of both mobile phone and operation system.
Microsoft Windows is No.1 PC operation system with its own browser and search engine. Its outlook is still the most popular and widely used contacts management tool in the world. Xbox is also the most influential game console in US. Smart phone will integrate with more and more application. Microsoft current resource is very valuable to it.
Nokia is not only the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. It also have one mature online mobile app store: OVI. OVI's map function is much better than other phone vendors' similar products, which will be cool for the future implantation of a variety of location-based services.
The race is now on for the software and hardware giants to prove their new phones can fly. In order to fly, the most important thing for this alliance is how to abandon. How to abandon the PC-based thinking, how to abandon past UI/menu design, how to abandon past software architecture which proves not suitable for smart phones. As long as the two companies can really integrate together with a better understanding about themselves. The alliance still has a great chance.
The emergence of the Nor-MS alliance will means a tripartite confrontation, Android, iPhone and Nor-MS, in mobile industry.We can only wait and see how this works out.

Jane Holiday is a student major in computer science. She is also webmaster owning some technology related websites, like dvd to iPad. Any readers are welcome to visit it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_G_Holiday