Microsoft’s Super Bowl "Empowering" Ads

With Super Bowl XLVIII just hours away, Microsoft is airing its first national Super Bowl advert on Sunday. The company while searching for a new CEO, has also found the time to create a series of "empowering" videos that mark a fresh marketing approach for the company. It’s easy to think of Microsoft as a corporate giant that has was late to the mobile and tablets party, but the reality is that millions of people still rely on its vast array of software products for their daily work. That’s the message that Microsoft is trying to hammer home during the Super Bowl this year.

Microsoft’s Super Bowl ads this year will run for 60 seconds during Sunday’s game, showing people using the company's software for the “greater good”. The software maker isn't revealing its exact Super Bowl ad until tomorrow, but it’s clear from the new "empowering" series of videos that it will include appearances from various people that have used Microsoft’s software across medicine, education, and everyday life.

It’s an unusually emotional ad for Microsoft, as the company has traditionally opted to market its products front and center. It's also a welcome move away from controversial campaigns such as Scroogled.

The ads, include the story of former professional football player Steve Gleason who was diagnosed with neuro-muscular disease ALS in 2011, and the ad shows how he uses a Surface along with Tobii’s eye tracking hardware to interact with friends and family.

A Swedish surgeon, who uses Kinect to perform surgeries in a better manner.

Classrooms across the world connecting to each other via Skype.

Hal Pasko, a 97 year old man who continued his love for art using Microsoft Paint.

Braylon O'Neill was born missing the tibia and fibula bones in both of his legs. Now, he's making strides, pushing limits, and playing sports because of Microsoft technology.

Sarah Churman also stars in one of Microsoft’s "empowering" ads. Churman was born deaf, but in 2011 a hearing implant allowed her to hear her children properly following years of having to use traditional hearing aids.

Combined together, Microsoft’s set of "empowering" ads are incredibly moving, that tugs at the heartstrings. Good work Microsoft!

Source: Microsoft YouTube

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RUMOUR: Microsoft Planning to Release Windows 9 in April 2015

Let’s face it, Windows 8 was not the grand success the people at Microsoft were hoping for. What people forgot was that it was the first step towards Microsoft’s vision of a hybrid tablet and desktop operating system and it is still an evolving UI/OS (Remember the Android 1.6, 2.0 stock UI?).

Although the company is focused on continued development on Windows 8.1, with an “Windows 8.1 - Update 1” on the cards, Windows watcher Paul Thurrott is reporting that the company has started planning on a release of Windows 9, code-named "Threshold" sometime around April 2015. Allegedly, Microsoft will unveil its ideas/plans/vision for Windows 9 at the company’s Build 2014 developer conference in April later this year.

The move to Windows9 could help Microsoft to move away from the criticism that Windows 8 received. It’s currently unknown what type of changes will be made in Windows 9, but a "Metro 2.0" is being reported, which will focus on improving Microsoft’s new app world and tiles. One of the major things that will supposedly come in between now and April 2015 is a full return of the Start Menu, although it is more likely that Microsoft will include this change in the Update for Windows 8.1 rather than in an entirely new operating system next year.

BUILD 2014 Will Set the Vision for Windows 9

Like it did with Windows 8, Microsoft will use three major milestone development points for Windows 9, but it’s not clear how many of them will be released to the public during the development period.

Windows certainly needs public excitement, more Windows 8-style apps, and in house innovation if it is to succeed with its vision of a hybrid tablet and desktop operating system. Hopefully Build 2014 and Windows 9 will provide the company just that.

One thing is clear, while there will be further modifications to Windows 8.1 in the coming updates, Windows 9 looks to be the next major release.

Source: WinSuperSite

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Next Xbox Will Play Games Offline - Leaked Email

With 21 May coming even closer, the excitement around the new Xbox grows even higher.

First the discussions were mainly about the name with Xbox 720, Xbox Loop and Xbox Durango (which turned out to be the internal testing name for the device). The hocus-pocus around the name soon died with most people anticipating it to be called just “Xbox”. This make a lot of sense to me as it conveys a powerful sense of commitment. It says that it isn’t the next Xbox, or the latest Xbox, or anything like that — just simply the definitive machine. This would be similar to Apple’s strategy of naming the most recent of its tablet offering simply as “iPad”.

A now-former Microsoft employee was even caught defending the controversial feature 

The topic that stirred up quite a storm on the internet was the “Always on, Always Connected.” rumor about the next Xbox. I’m not so sure where it originated, it was about the requirement of active internet connection to use any feature of the next Xbox. Right from the start I was against this, and I always thought of it as a gigantic mistake by Microsoft. It would hand the business to Sony with its PS4, and basically tell people with unreliable internet that they shouldn’t buy the console.

It was quite a relief to see an internal letter pop up onArs Techina. “There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should ‘just work’ regardless of their current connection status,” the email says, it also goes on to state single player gaming to be one such scenario. The fact that it’s a mass email suggests that this is a recent change, or at least a recent clarification, in Microsoft’s official policy. A company however big it might be never sends an e-mail to everyone to say, "Just FYI, the policy we've had this whole time is still the policy. Keep doing what you've been doing."  

How good the next Xbox will be? We still don’t know. Will it be better than the PS4? No idea. But luckily the fears that the console will be completely useless when your broadband goes down have been overblown.

Source: Ars Techina 

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Microsoft Confirms Forthcoming Windows Blue

It has been known for quite a long time that Windows was planning a low cost annual upgrade cycle to the Windows and Windows Phone OS, with the project supposedly having a code-name of Windows Blue. Now, we have the first official mention of Windows Blue via a job posting on Microsoft’s careers site.

What is Windows Blue?

With Windows 8 released just a couple of month’s back, Microsoft is now preparing the next generation Windows client. Microsoft plans to adopt a standardized approach across Windows and Windows Phone in an effort to provide more regular updates to consumers. This project is known as Windows Blue.

Originally uncovered by ZDNet, the update will bring changes in the UI and alterations to the entire platform and pricing. Microsoft is trying to make Windows Blue the next OS that everyone installs. The approach is a very simplistic one, Microsoft will price its next Windows release at an extremely low cost (maybe even free) to ensure users upgrade. Once Windows Blue is released, the Windows SDK will be updated to support the new release and Microsoft will stop accepting apps that are built specifically for Windows 8, pushing developers to create apps for Blue. Windows 8 apps will continue to run on Blue despite the planned SDK changes.

The Verge also goes on to say that a user will need a genuine copy of Windows to upgrade to Windows Blue. Built-in apps and the Windows Store will cease functioning if a copy is upgraded that is pirated. Sources also point that Microsoft will be likely to keep the Windows 8 name for the foreseeable future, despite the Windows Blue update. A big part of Windows Blue is the push towards yearly updates for Microsoft’s OS. Microsoft will kick off an annual upgrade cycle for Windows that is designed to make it more competitive against rival platforms from Apple and Google.

The job posting is for a software development engineer who will join the "Core Experience Team" to work on "most of what customers touch and see in the OS." The first paragraph of the listing reads -

We’re looking for an excellent, experienced SDET to join the Core Experience team in Windows Sustained Engineering (WinSE). The Core Experience features are the centerpiece of the new Windows UI, representing most of what customers touch and see in the OS, including: the start screen; application lifecycle; windowing; and personalization. Windows Blue promises to build and improve upon these aspects of the OS, enhancing ease of use and the overall user experience on devices and PCs worldwide.

By the sound of the description it looks like Windows Blue will focus mainly on UI and how users interact with their computers rather than under-the-hood changes. Windows Blue is expected to debut in mid-2013, so it is only a matter of time before which we will find out how good the upgrade is at smoothing out any of Windows 8 rough edges.

Apple has enjoyed great success in this annual upgrade arena, gradually adding new features to Mac OS X every year, through its feline-themed updates. Google too is having a good time with the annual Android upgrades, bringing new desserts to the table. Will Microsoft have similar success with Windows Blue? Only time will tell.

Update: The Microsoft Career's website no longer displays the job with a message - This Job is no Longer Available.

Source: ZDNet, Microsoft Careers

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Microsoft Surface RT Prices Revealed

After announcing its Surface tablets nearly four months ago, Microsoft has now unveiled the pricing for both of its ARM-based Surface RT tablets at its Microsoft online stores. The 10.6-inch Surface, powered by Windows RT, will go on sale on October 26th and will be priced starting at $499 for the 32GB version without Touch Cover and a 32GB version with the Touch Cover for $599. Microsoft is also offering 64GB model for $699 with a Touch Cover included. 

Microsoft listed its Surface pricing at its online Microsoft Store this morning, but were taken down shortly afterwards suggesting some guy at Microsoft got a bit too excited and put up the page well before its prime time. The company has also listed the prices for its Touch Cover, at $119.99 each, and Type Cover for $129.99. The Touch Cover appears to be available in white, red, black, blue, and purple colors – while the Type Cover is listed as a single item in black.

Microsoft's has already started the marketing campaign of the Surface, with Surface street art spotted in a number of US cities over the past few weeks and another TV/Online Ad. The software maker is expected to hold a Surface reception event for press and analysts on October 25th, and some of the company's holiday pop-up stores will open at midnight on October 26th to start selling the tablets.

Earlier, the WSJ reported that Microsoft anticipated selling as many as 3 to 5 million of these tablets in Q4, which is ambitious, but at least they’re not overpriced for the category.The pricing is in direct competition with the iPad, will it sell like the latter is yet to be seen.

Update: Microsoft’s pre-order page for the Windows RT tablet has gone live, confirming what we had just seen. 

Source: TechCrunch

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Web Platform

As the Web continues to move towards the usage of next-get Web technologies such as HTML 5, CSS 3 and others, the current reality is that there aren't many  definitive online resources that cover the best practices for these technologies and their implementations.

Fortunately, a conglomerate of big companies that include Apple, Adobe, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia and Opera (all working closely with the W3C) have come together and launched a website that plans to become such a definitive resource for HTML 5, CSS 3, and any other web development technology. The website, intuitively called “Web Platform” will also cover the standardization and cross-browser implementation part of these technologies (since many technologies such as HTML5 -for instance- has not been yet standardized by the W3C).

The aim is to improve the standards across all platforms, which means the resource should ideally set the standards for every other company, whether it’s meant for desktop, mobile or other device.

We are an open community of developers building resources for a better web, regardless of brand, browser or platform. Anyone can contribute and each person who does makes us stronger.

Although at the time being there are only a handful of tutorials, ones that mostly relate to the general principles behind these next generation web technologies, the website is organized under the form of a Wiki. In the future, representatives from each of the companies listed above will update the Web Platform with tutorials pertaining to certain aspects of web development.

Users willing to learn the best practices of tomorrow’s web development techniques will also be able to interact and share advice using the forums or the website’s IRC channel. At the time being, the content is supplied in its entirety by the companies part of the project. In the future, though, visitors with the appropriate knowledge will be encouraged to share tips, code examples and such on the Wiki. All the content on the Web Platform website will be licensed under the “creative commons” license.

Here is what Adobe officials had to say regarding the Web Platform initiative:

It is now up to the web community to help create and maintain the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for web technologies. So, go check it out and start contributing. Document the web!

To me, this looks like an awesome initiative, and given the high profile of all the companies that are supporting the project, the Web Platform website might soon become the number one resource for any technology relating to web development and even mobile.