Well, we had quite a week here at Microsoft, as you may have heard. And here’s the latest edition of Weekend Reading to catch up everyone who might have missed the news. Check it out!
Announcing Windows Phone 8. It’s time to start telling y…
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on Bing teaming up with Yelp, a Skype advertising update and a great slideshow to help last-minute shoppers pick the right gift for Father’s Day.
Bing and Yelp help you do more with loca…
Xbox 360 sold more units in May in the U.S. than any other console or handheld gaming device, maintaining its position as the best-selling console in the U.S. for the past 17 months.
May highlights from The NPD Group include:
· Xbox 360 sold 160…
It only comes once a year, but here is your Weekend Reading: The E3 Edition – bringing you all the highlights from the Los Angeles entertainment expo. We’ve also got stories on the limited edition Nokia Lumia 900 “Batphone”, the…
This edition of Weekend Reading is chock full of major news nuggets, including the launch of the new Bing, the availability of Windows 8 Release Preview, an E3 teaser and the debut of a beautiful new camera app for Windows Phone called Photosynth.
New Bing, available today, takes you from searching to doing. Do you ever feel like you’re spending too much time searching and not enough time doing? If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey conducted by Bing and Impulse Research, nearly 75 percent of people spend more time than they would like searching for information online. Time wasted searching is a thing of the past with the new Bing design, which brings together information from the Web, experts and enthusiasts, and your friends to help you do more — available today at http://www.bing.com. You can find out more about the new Bing over on the Microsoft News Center. Also, don’t miss this Bing Search Blog post about Bing’s new Snapshot feature, and be sure to watch the video below with Online Services Division President Qi Lu. Finally, check out today’s blog post on the Bing Summer of Doing.
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Microsoft announces availability of Windows 8 Release Preview. Microsoft announced on Thursday the availability of the Windows 8 Release Preview, the next milestone of the highly anticipated Windows 8 operating system. Now available for download in 14 languages at http://preview.windows.com, the Windows 8 Release Preview delivers a fast and fluid experience, along with a new user interface that responds equally well to touch as it does to keyboard and mouse. Since the February release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which was downloaded more than 1 million times in the first 24 hours, Windows 8 has become the most tested Microsoft operating system of all time, and with Thursday’s release, it enters its final phase of development before it releases to manufacturing. Head on over to the Microsoft News Center and a post from Windows and Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky on Building Windows 8 for the rest of the story. Below is a screenshot of the Windows Store in the Windows 8 Release Preview:
Xbox beyond the box. As you probably know, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) starts next week in Los Angeles. Just in case you missed it, check out this Tuesday post on The Official Microsoft Blog from Yusuf Mehdi, chief marketing officer of the Interactive Entertainment Division, which raises the curtain on some of the news Microsoft will announce at E3. We kick things off on Monday, June 4 at 9:30 a.m. PT. You can watch us on live TV though our partnership with Spike TV, on the Web (Xbox.com), and for the first time ever – on Xbox LIVE.
Photosynth arrives on Windows Phone. Your phone’s camera just got a lot more exciting. Capping an impressive month for Marketplace, the free and much-anticipated Photosynth app for Windows Phone has arrived. Download it now. What’s Photosynth? Simply put, it’s a Microsoft technology for creating majestic 3D panoramas from plain old 2D shots. Although that summary doesn’t quite do justice to how magical Photosynth is. Marketplace is already home to several solid panorama apps. But as the Photosynth team notes on its blog today, there’s nothing out there quite like this: It’s the only mobile app that can piece together a full panoramic sphere (that’s 360 degrees horizontally and vertically.) For more on this story, read this Wednesday post on the Windows Phone Blog and this Wednesday post on Next at Microsoft. Below is an image taken using the Photosynth app:
Announcing Office 365 for Government. We’re pleased to announce some great news for government customers in the United States. First, we’re introducing Office 365 for Government. Office 365 for Government is a new multi-tenant service that stores U.S. government data in a segregated community cloud. Like other Office 365 offerings, it includes productivity and collaboration services including Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online and Office Professional Plus. Check out this Wednesday post on the Office 365 Blog for more detail.
Updates to the SkyDrive apps for Windows and Mac. We recently rolled out an update to the SkyDrive app for Windows Phone that fixed a few minor bugs, and we have a small bug-fix-only update to our iOS app on the way as well. We’re also starting to push updates to the SkyDrive apps for Windows desktop and for Mac, which will appear automatically on your PC or Mac over the course of the next week or so. You don’t need to do anything, as the updates occur automatically in the background. Mosey on over to the Inside Windows Live Blog to find out more about the update.
Microsoft strengthens commitment to addressing youth unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean. At its annual Government Leaders Forum – Americas this week, Microsoft strengthened its commitment to creating opportunities for young people in Latin America and the Caribbean in an effort to reduce youth unemployment in the region. The company detailed its participation in the recent launch of a new initiative, New Employment Opportunities (NEO), which aims to train 1 million youth throughout the Latin American and Caribbean region and place at least 50 percent of those youth in jobs during the next 10 years. You can find out more about the forum over on the Microsoft News Center and in this post and this post on Microsoft on the Issues.
Thanks for checking out the latest edition of Weekend Reading! Have a great weekend!
Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft
Next week, the Xbox team heads to Los Angeles for E3. Having recently joined the team, I have the benefit of fresh perspective, and one of the things that has struck me is the amount of opportunities we have ahead.
Before joining Xbox, I had the fortun…
Xbox 360 continues to hold the number one spot in the U.S., selling more units in April than any other console. This marks the 16th consecutive month that XBox 360 has been the best-selling console in the U.S. Below is a screen shot of Kinect Star Wars…
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on Barnes & Noble and Microsoft announcing a new strategic partnership, Microsoft Research opening a lab in New York City and the new web Marketplace. Check ‘em out.
Barnes & Nob…
And now it’s time for a little Weekend Reading…
In this edition, we’ve got stories on the new Skype for Windows Phone app, the winners of the U.S. Imagine Cup finals, Wordament coming to Marketplace, the new Bing Desktop and more.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is HERE! Skype for Windows Phone! Following the recent availability of the Skype for Windows Phone Beta app announced at Mobile World Congress, we’ve released an official version of the Skype for Windows Phone app, which is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. You can also get the app directly from your Windows Phone. Get more detail about this story on The Big Blog, and take a moment to watch the video below on how the Skype app works. Also, don’t miss this Big Blog post about Skype Video and Voice calling coming to PlayStation Vita.
College students build a tool to help feed the hungry. A team of students from Arizona State University aims to use Microsoft technology to get uneaten meals from restaurants and catered events to nearby families who would otherwise go hungry. Team FlashFood, with its solution, FlashFood, was the winning team in the prestigious software design category at Microsoft’s U.S. Imagine Cup finals on Monday. The team will advance to compete in the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide finals in Sydney, Australia July 6-10. For more detail, check out this feature story on the Microsoft News Center.
Now in Marketplace: The Xbox LIVE version of Wordament. Here’s something everybody in my house has been waiting for: The Xbox LIVE version of Wordament. The wildly popular Windows Phone word game was reborn today in Marketplace with a new look and extra features. Download it now. For many people, one big draw of this new Wordament—still free, by the way—is the addition of Xbox achievements. But the game also features other nice upgrades. Read this Wednesday post on the Windows Phone Blog for the whole story. Also, be sure to check out this Tuesday Windows Phone Blog post about two changes in Marketplace and how they affect you. Below is a screenshot from Wordament.
An exciting few days for personal cloud storage – and SkyDrive. This week, we’ve seen a welcome update from Dropbox, a new chapter for SkyDrive and the long awaited emergence of Google Drive. We’re very encouraged by the response we’ve received this week, and it’s hard not to be pretty happy when we hear positive feedback on all of the improvements we’ve made and the value we provide versus other solutions. With this week’s events, it can be fun and useful to compare features across services. We’ve seen these charts across the Web, and of course we recently updated our own chart. Read this Wednesday post on the Inside Windows Live Blog for more detail.
Bing Desktop brings beauty and convenience to Windows 7. From the beginning, Bing has been a place for exploration. The Bing homepage images aspire to spark your curiosity, giving you something to talk about and connect with. Over the years, many of you have requested a simple way to enjoy these images as your Windows desktop background. With Tuesday’s release of Bing Desktop, we’re introducing an easy way to do just that. Head on over to the Bing Search Blog for the rest of the story.
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report warns of ongoing Conficker threat. On Wednesday, Microsoft released the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 12 (.pdf file), which found that the Conficker worm was detected approximately 220 million times worldwide in the past two and a half years, making it one of the biggest ongoing threats to enterprises. The study also revealed the worm continues to spread because of weak or stolen passwords and vulnerabilities for which a security update exists. Get the rest of the story on the Microsoft News Center and Microsoft on the Issues.
Need help with Office? Try our new and improved search. The Office team wants you to be able to find a good answer when you search for help in whatever program you happen to be using. One way to do that is to show you search results in Help from other reputable websites, alongside our own articles and videos. Take a gander at this Wednesday post on The Office Blog for more.
That’s a wrap for this edition of Weekend Reading! Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog
We’ve got an action-packed edition of Weekend Reading for you today, with stories on the return of Master Chief in “Halo 4”, the latest word on Windows 8, a few tips to help you get the most out of your Nokia Lumia 900 and a wicked co…
