(image: screenshot from Productivity Future Vision video)
ever wonder what the future will be like? or perhaps, how the future technology development will impact our daily personal and work lives? well, wait no further as Microsoft is letting you in on their vision of the productivity of the future. so how future is it going to be? i shall not speculate. the video depicts an exciting prospect but being a skeptic, i am, well… skeptical about it but i guess a little dream won’t hurt. as a tech enthusiast, i secretly look forward to that vision, however, the skeptic in me tells me that we have to do something about the infrastructure. so what’s my wish for the future? i don’t have the expense or talent to create a video to portray my vision, so as such, i shall sum up my wish in a few words: a bugless society. can Microsoft or anyone, for that matter, guarantee that? oh well, that’s just my rambling, let’s just get on with this interesting vision in the video after the break. again, no tech aficionados would want to miss this. Continue Reading
(photos: Nokia) Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 Smartphone | US$tba | www.nokia.com
finally, Nokia has unveiled its first pair of Windows Phone – the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 – after announcing its long overdue decision of ditching its homegrown OS in favor of Microsoft Windows Phone some months ago. frankly, Nokia is now know more for simple phones that most senior citizens would prefer and not so much of a smartphone company. anyway, here they are, the phones that everyone (or not) is waiting to see. common features to both handsets include Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango, 1.4 GHz Qualcomm processor, and connectivity such as WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, microUSB, GPS/aGPS and 3.5 mm audio jack. both phones are also blessed with two microphones and host of sensors like 3D accelerometer, proximity sensor, magnetometer sensor, and ambient light sensor. Continue Reading
(image: Microsoft) Emily the Strange MIMOBOT USB Flash Drive | from US$59.99 | www.xbox.com
Xbox 360 racing car game fans can stop their envy for their fellow Playstation 3 counterpart for having the Gran Turismo 5, cos’ the much anticipated Forza Motorsport 4 is in sight. billed as the “definitive racing game of 2011″, the fourth rendition of Forza franchise gives a new meaning to handsfree driving cos’ now you can now drive without a controller, thanks to the Kinect. with the Kinect, user can now experience the cars even more such as walking around a car in the virtual showroom, crouching down to observe details, and even opening the doors or hood just by the power of gestures. Continue Reading
(image credit: screenshot from video O365 MGX Copy video)
this was supposedly a video that was created to give the Office 365 sales team a boost but managed to “leak” outside the circle. ironically, this video found its way to Google’s YouTube which doesn’t seems very convincing as a “leak”. as to the video’s emphasis on the “snooping” and “skimming” through the Gmail’s inboxes for keywords and pushing the relevant ads – personally, that doesn’t really bothers me a bit. yes, i am a Gmail user for many years now. at times, i didn’t even take notice that there’s an ad right at the top. anyway, on the business-end, ads do help to keep the Gmail free, which is what i and i believe, many users would have preferred as oppose to paying a hefty sum for something i could have for free. anyway, hit past the jump and check out this hilarious video for yourself. Continue Reading
is Microsoft feeling exasperated by Apple‘s assault in the computer market or perhaps by Apple’s continuing increase in computer market share? i would think so. recently, Microsoft has launched a ‘campaign’ asking consumers to ‘do the math’. simply put, Microsoft wants you to know that you are overpaying for your MacBook. Continue Reading
going big is the way to stand out. apparently, Microsoft Germany second that and had the folks over at Stereolize to create an ultra-huge 235-inches interactive touchscreen for their presentation at the CeBIT 2011 in Hanover, Germany. check out the video (with nice soundtrack) after the jump. the display is almost two time the height of the presenters and has complete touch and gestures functionality, well, at least up to the height an average presenter can reach. as witness from the video, the flicking and touching don’t seems to have any lack which oppose to my perception of a Microsoft OS. sorry dudes. years of Microsoft OS on desktop, laptop and mobile had evidently traumatized me. what’s more impressive was the humongous size display doesn’t induce any lack. awesome stuff!
if you think Microsoft is letting its guard down after the success of Kinect (success as hack, not as a gaming peripheral), then you are all so wrong. as if moving our body for gaming isn’t enough, Microsoft wants us to touch ourselves to make a call or play a game of Tetris. yup, that’s right – touch ourselves. no keyboard, no mouse, just us and our arms and hands. Microsoft has tasked a team of researchers to dream up of new ways on how we might one day make a call, control our media players and reinstall the Windows OS to Mac OS. nah… i made the last one up.
one of the projects, dubbed “Skinput” is a system that allows you control your devices by touching specific points on your arm. apparently, unique vibration is generated when we ‘hit’ at different parts of our arm, thus this technology is able to pick up this unique signature and matches it to a specific operations, such as shuffling of songs on your MP3 player. check out the video after break on the vibration-sensing based control, which also can combine with a pico projector mounted on the armband (which also houses the sensing and processing unit of Skinput) to project an interface on your arm or palm.
another method being explored is sensing of electric signals from the muscles as it contracts. hence, when we executes different gestures or movements, our muscles in our body will emit signals in which a contraption such as an armband with sensors built-in could pick them up and translating them to the preassigned action. check out the cool video of hacked Guitar Hero taking input from muscles electric signals after the jump.
while these developments will certainly improve our mobility greatly but it will not see the light of implementation until many years on as they are still in its research phase. though the prospect sounds exciting but these technologies would have far bigger implication to our daily life than we thought. we would probably grow conscious about how we interact with the objects around us, as these moves might just trigger you to call 911 or volume up your media player accidentally or perhaps, getting tiny bruises all over our arms.
check this out. Microsoft Surface finally sees practical use in Hong Kong Red MR karaoke bar. Red MR has 80 units of the Microsoft Surface in 80 of its karaoke rooms and with plan to increase to 300 units in future. it should be the biggest order for the Microsoft Surface to date.
i guess Microsoft will be proud to know at least their Surface is seeing some real use in the commercial sector. though the order number of 80 is hardly considered ‘big’ in commercial sense, but still it is a start. we are more than excited to see things going towards the REAL future. well, we don’t need to detail further, check out the videos below and witness for yourself.
i have not try this out yet but it certainly sounds like an unified inbox. or close. security issues aside, this is a great idea. we can check multiple email accounts (of different providers) via our email client, but online? Windows Live Hotmail has the answer. you can now check your SingNet, Yahoo! Mail, GMAIL and of course, your Hotmail in one log in. saving you the hassle of logging into separate accounts. i am sure we will asking about security issues, especially when it is Microsoft. how safe is it? will it make life easier for hacker? now that the hacker can access to all your email accounts by just getting into one. hmmm. no? in anyway, i suppose this will be a common practice eventually when cloud-computing becomes a norm. there’s also competition from portable devices such as smartphone and iPad, which already offers unified inbox.
![the biggest orders of Microsoft Surface used in karaoke bar [videos]](http://tech.mikeshouts.com/wp-content/themes/premiumnews/functions/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2010/12/MicrosoftSurfaceusedinHKRedMRkaraokebar544px1.jpg&w=100&h=57&zc=1&q=90)
