As you know, Windows Live Essentials is a pack of Windows apps which includes Mail, Photo Gallery, SkyDrive, Live Writer and many more. With Windows 8 release not so far away, Microsoft released the preview version of the updated Windows Live Essentials, which is now called ‘Windows Essentials 2012’ i.e. without the ‘Live’ branding.
The updated pack includes the new SkyDrive which was released for Windows 8, an advanced Movie Maker and Photo Gallery app.
Movie Maker is now hardware-accelerated and includes video stabilization features, just like YouTube. One out-of-the-box feature included in Movie maker is, the ability to add royalty-free soundtracks to your videos, with the help of music search engines like AudioMicro (many videos on YouTube are brought down for adding soundtracks with no appropriate rights).
ADVERTISEMENT
While everyone doubted if Live Writer will get updated, Microsoft did care about bloggers and included it in the pack. But, it doesn’t really have any improvements (I’m writing this on Live Writer 2012). Also, it still wears the ‘Live’ branding which is strange.
The pack will work on both Windows 8 as well as Windows 7.
So if you’re running any of those two OSes, grab and try Windows Essentials 2012, either through web installer or the good old offline installer. Note that, with web installer you’ll be able to choose which programs you want to download, instead of downloading the whole pack.
Microsoft over the pass year or so has pushed it’s new design philosophy as “metro-style”. The new tile based design philosophy is used extensively in Windows 8 and even the recently unveiled email service called Outlook.com.
All of a sudden, Microsoft has been asking developers to avoid using the word metro in their apps. It means dropping the word “Metro” from its branding and replacing it with the lamer version “Windows 8 style UI”.
Why the sudden aversion for the word “Metro”?
Microsoft has been unabashedly using the words “Metro style” for describing its new design philosophy. According to ZDnet, the Microsoft suddenly claims, that “Metro” was only a code name during their product development cycle.
In this press release by Microsoft about Steve Ballmer at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, I came across the term “metro-style” about 12 times and the word “metro” 27 times.
That seems like a rather strange way to NOT promote “metro style” as a public brand.
The real reason could possibly be a trademark litigation over the usage of the word “metro” but one expected Microsoft to do its homework a lot better.
The term “metro style” has been in use for describing Windows 8 design for over a year now. The least Microsoft could have done was make sure they had the copyright to using it as a commercial brand and not leaving it things for so late.
Just a few weeks after the Release preview, Microsoft confirms that Windows 8 is released to manufacture (RTM). That apparently means, the final version of Windows 8 is now available for OEMs to make necessary changes to their existing hardware.
It all started with the BUILD conference in September 2011, and now RTM is a big milestone for Microsoft. The good news is that, if you’re a Technet or MSDN subscriber, you can download the official (and final) version of Windows 8 starting from August 15th.
The public release of Windows 8 will take place on October 26th, to which you can upgrade at a price of 39.99$ (much cheaper than Windows 7 upgrade prices) or by buying a all new Windows 8 PC.
Also, if you’re developer, you can access the final version of Visual Studio 2012 to make apps, and put them in the Windows store (which is still not accessible from the web).
Microsoft has replaced Hotmail with Outlook.com. Head over to Outlook.com and sign-up for a new account or sign-in with your existing Hotmail account.
The layout is new and different, with a focus on reducing spam and showing more relevant content.
Currently, it is in preview mode but soon Hotmail users will get prompted to make the move.
With Outlook.com, Microsoft has increased controls for managing newsletters, along with showing Twitter and Facebook updates within the layout itself. In other words it has recognized that a lot of personal communication happens on social networking more than email.
ADVERTISEMENT
Outlook.com’ s Design and Features
The new service has a neat design and with 360 million accounts, this could be a good reboot for them. More importantly for Microsoft, keep them away from Gmail.
I am quite impressed with the design and layout of the new email service. Microsoft has really done some out of the box thinking for coming up with this design. The design is consistent with their metro-styled Windows 8 layout design.
The social integration allows users to chat with Facebook friends, look up photos shared by contacts, all from the mail box.
The compose layout has minimalism, which is actually a great idea as it ends up being a distraction free environment while writing an email.
Finally Microsoft is doing away with its old legacy of Live IDs. They will be replaced by Microsoft Accounts. These accounts by the way can be used to log into any Windows 8 device.
Which email service do you use? If you are using Gmail, would you migrate to Outlook.com? Do drop in your comments.
Yesterday, Microsoft reported a loss for the first time in over 25 years. It was the first time they reported losses after it became a public company. A lot of people have written about the shocking decline of Microsoft and some even were writing obituaries.
It might be tempting to say that in the supposedly ‘post-pc’ era, Microsoft with it’s Windows platform is dying. But it is not the PC sales that have hurt Microsoft, but it’s strategy for the web.
In 2007, Microsoft bought a company called Aquantive for $6.4 Billion. It was supposed to rival Google as an advertisement platform. Unfortunately, Aquantive could not make profits and Microsoft had to write it off. This has led to a loss of $442 Million past 3 months.
Writing off on failures even at the cost of declaring losses, is indicative that the company is trying to focus on its core competencies, which are selling operating systems and Office software suites. So despite a reported loss, Microsoft stock went up after the news broke out.
ADVERTISEMENT
The revenues of Microsoft are up by 4% despite slow sales of Windows 7. A slowdown of Windows 7 purchases will probably continue as Windows 8 is expected in October.
Microsoft’s Journey From Arrogance to Humility!
Steve Ballmer – CEO of Microsoft
Microsoft has made a lot of aggressive moves which were arrogant in the past. They under-estimated companies like Google and Apple about 10 years ago. They pretty much disregarded the internet as a medium itself.
By ignoring mobile platforms, they let Apple with their iPhones and Google with Android become big players. Microsoft was so arrogant because it was making big money for so long; that they simply did not pause to think, that they were surrendering their future.
ADVERTISEMENT
They kept throwing money at Bing and then making purchases like Aquantive to challenge Google. Unfortunately throwing money does not always get best results and today despite Bing growing slowly, it is far from being a profitable venture for the company. The fact that they were not taking web technology seriously was evident from how Internet Explorer 6 as a browser survived for over a decade.
But recently, Microsoft has woken up to reality and has tried to shed it arrogance. First signs in recent times has been it’s “Browser you loved to hate” campaign for IE9. Instead of suggesting other browsers were useless or pathetic, they were admitting that their previous versions were poor but it was time to give their new version a try.
A Humble Microsoft is Good News
ADVERTISEMENT
Companies find it hard to become humble. In other words they find it hard to admit defeat. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple as its CEO, he shed the arrogance and famously refocused the company into concentrating on its core products. He also gave up on the idea of trying to defeat Microsoft.
An almost bankrupt Apple, was suddenly focusing on creating something new for the future and the rest is history.
Microsoft seems to be getting a lesson in humility and they seem to be focusing not of beating other companies but rather to improve their products and services.
Microsoft unveiled Surface tablets a few weeks ago. The tablets are not trying to compete with iPad directly. The tablets are designed differently and it is looking to bring something different in the tablet niche.
Windows 8 also is designed very different from previous versions of Windows. This refocus exercise by Microsoft is finally good news because in the end consumers might be the real winners.
What are your views on the future of Microsoft? Do drop in your comments.
One of the biggest selling software for Microsoft is the Office Suite. Some analysts claim it makes them as much revenues as Windows does. With the combination of Office tools and Windows OS, Microsoft has had a pretty strong hold over the PC market in the past two decades.
The New Microsoft Office suite was unveiled by Microsoft today. It will launch the Office 2013 suite along with Office 365 Subscription options integrated with SkyDrive to keep its current customers, who might be increasingly looking at Google Apps as an option.
New Microsoft Office Features
It is apparent that New Microsoft Office will best work with Windows 8. This is the reason for its focus on touch screens. It also has new Windows 8 style applications for Office like OneNote and Lync.
Touch screen and Windows 8 is what Microsoft hope will get people using Office suite on phones and tablets running Windows 8.
Google Apps is built into the idea of storing and synchronizing documents on the cloud. Microsoft has struggled here despite being the market leader. New Office version will allow saving documents to SkyDrive by default. It will sync documents across different devices.
Office 365 Home Premium subscription service will include 20 GB SkyDrive Storage.
Finally Office subscription models will have a social layer. It has Yammer which is a private social network for businesses. It will also integrate with Skype, which allows 60 minutes free calls every month.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Office 2013 versions of Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook will be well appreciated but how Microsoft leverages the Office 365 subscription services will be interesting.
This is where it will have to attract small businesses and home users who are more prone to move away to the cheaper Google Apps.
It is also unclear if Office will show up on other platforms like iOS. Despite the excitement around Microsoft’s Surface tablets, I doubt they will sell in their millions anytime soon. iPad will still remain the leader here and it won’t be a bad idea to have Microsoft release a version for iPad users who might be using Office on their desktops.
You can get a preview of the new Office tools from Microsoft at the link below. Do drop in your comments
Microsoft has entered the tablet wars, not with just a operating system that could run on tablets but unveiling its own range of tablets. The tablets are named as ‘Surface’.
Yesterday, it released details of two tablets Surface Tablet for Windows 8 Pro and Surface Tablet for Windows RT.
Details of Surface Tablet With Windows 8 Pro
The tablet will run on Windows 8 Pro.
The screen size is 10.6-inch with the resolution support for 1920 X 1080-pixel LCD.
The tablet will support USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort.
The storage on the tablet will be upto 64GB and 128GB.
ADVERTISEMENT
Details of Surface Tablet with Windows RT
The tablet will run on Windows RT.
The weight of the tablet is only 676 grams. The screen size is 10.6 inch ClearType HD Display.
The tablet will support USB 2.0 (which disappoints), Micro HD Viceo and a 2X2 MIMO antennae.
The storage will be configurable from 32GB to 64GB.
Both tablets versions include a keyboard which is made from a fabric like material. It also has a built in kick-stand which allows the tablet to be propped up on a table, just like a laptop screen.
ADVERTISEMENT
Video
Microsoft is expected to push through Windows 8 along with many manufacturers on PCs, Mobiles and Tablets. But with Surface, it might alienate some manufacturers.
Microsoft probably took the help of Nokia to create this tablet though it is unclear at the moment. What Microsoft has done with Surface tablets, is that they have created a standard for what Microsoft envisions of other manufacturers when they roll out their Windows 8 tablets.
What are your views on Microsoft launching its own tablet devices?
I decided to check out what Bing is offering with its tie-up with Encyclopedia Britannica. Below is the search result for a search term and I have highlighted the Britannica entry in the results.
Few things that stand out is that the link is not exactly at the top, which would have been very useful.
I carried out more search queries and found that Wikipedia entries almost always show up above the Britannica ones. It also has a lot less information that Google Knowledge Graph shows as you can see in the image below.
Google shows its Knowledge Graph results more prominently than Bing is showing up Britannica results. I wonder what exactly Bing is trying to do here but fixing these results at the top could be a good start as users are more like to actually look them up.
Almost fourteen months ago, I wrote about the IECountdown – which was like Microsoft’s official goodbye to IE6. It was a good initiative by Microsoft, which is still trying to get rid of the bad reputation it received because of a browser (IE6) stuck in time.
Last year, Internet Explorer 6 still accounted for 12% of the world’s browser market. I decided to check on some stats and see if things have really changed or is IE6 still proving very difficult for Microsoft to kill off. I decided to use statistics from NetMarketShare the same source that Microsoft uses to show IE6 usage on the IE6 Countdown website.
Some Internet Explorer Shockers!
About 7.1% of the browsers are still on IE6. That is not the surprising part. The browser share of IE6 has grown in the past couple of months from 6.8% in Feb 2012 to 7.1% in April 2012. Usually this share goes up during December when year ending accounts are done on enterprise computers which still often run only on IE6.
China still seems to be the biggest market for IE6. An astounding 23.8% of the browsers in China are IE6.
Internet Explorer was shipped as a default browser with Vista almost half a decade ago. Strangely more people still use IE6 when compared to IE7.
Even though we are on version 10 for IE, the most popular version is Internet Explorer 8, which was released in 2009.
Internet Explorer has a very fragmented market share based on their browser versions. For example, most Firefox and Chrome users are on the latest versions of their browser. On Chrome, users do not even really notice when their browsers automatically updates to newer versions.
I must say that Microsoft has recently woken up to the horrendous reputation of IE. It even has called it the ‘Browser we love to hate’ in a advertisement campaign. Hopefully the recent spike in IE6 usage is just a blip before its eventual demise.
Internet Explorer has steadily lost out in the battle of the browsers. Yes, it is still the most used browser but that is mainly because it is the default browser on the most popular Operating System. Chrome in recent years has become increasingly popular and the general reputation of Internet Explorer has taken a nose dive over the past few years..
While accepting their previous versions were not up to the mark, they are pitching Internet Explorer 9 as a decent browser.
Microsoft’s New Advertisement for Internet Explorer 9
ADVERTISEMENT
Microsoft has a new Ad poking fun at a guy who hated Internet Explorer all his life but now has become a fan of new Internet Explorer 9. The advertisement is pretty bad and not really funny enough. I think it might actually make more people avoid the browser than use it (See video below).
There are some gems in Internet Explorer 9 like pinning a website to the taskbar which cannot be done with Chrome or Firefox. But Chrome and Firefox does allow making applications of a website which can be pinned to the Windows Taskbar. 😉
What are your views on Internet Epxlorer 9? Have you checked it out? Do you find yourself quitting Chrome or Firefox? Also what did your think about that advertisement by Microsoft? Do drop in your comments.
