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In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on big updates for Bing, some new apps for Windows Phone and some previews of what you'll see from Windows 8 and IE10. Bing Updates Available for Test Drive You may have heard last...(read more)..

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/15/midweek-download-may-16-bing-updates-begin.aspx

It was a busy week for the company, as Bing announced some exciting new features in their most significant update since they launched three years ago. We heard about a great new Windows Phone from Samsung and a very cool new augmented reality app from...(read more)..

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/11/weekend-reading-may-11-edition-new-bing-unveiled-app-device-news-from-windows-phone-and-tell-mom-she-rocks-with-skype.aspx

"Kinect Star Wars" was the number one game title in the U.S. in April. (Source: NPD Group, April 2012) 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...(read more)..

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/10/xbox-360-number-one-selling-console-in-u-s-for-16th-consecutive-month.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on Microsoft Research at CHI 2012, the future of Windows Media Center on Windows 8, and creating rich mobile Web experiences on Windows Phone 7.5, just to name a few. Check ‘em out.

Microsoft Research at CHI 2012. The ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is taking place this week in Austin, Texas. It’s more well known as CHI and is the premier international conference on human-computer interaction. CHI is always a highlight of Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton’s tech year as the event attracts a wide discipline of skills from the world of design, engineering, management and user experience professionals – and Microsoft Research (MSR) is always there in force. Check out this Monday post on Next that rounds up some of the MSR projects being shown off at CHI, as well as this post on a project that shows dual views on existing LCD displays. Finally, the MIT Technology Review profiled an MSR project known as Soundwave on Monday. Below is a video of the Soundwave project:

Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8. If you saw our recent post on the Windows 8 editions, then you know already that Windows Media Center will be available in Windows 8. You might also have noticed Windows Media Center is included in Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Media Center has always been the subject of a lot of discussion and feedback in these forums as well as e-mail. Now, we would like to share more details about our plan and the motivations behind it. Read this May 3 post on Building Windows 8 for the whole story and this follow-up FAQ post on DVD playback.

Fast and fluid animations in your Metro style app. Fast and fluid animations bring apps to life. In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you will notice that animations are an integral part of the user experience. When you log in to your PC, the items in the Start menu animate in. When you launch an immersive app or zoom into the Start menu, the experience is enriched with a smooth animation. Head on over to the Windows 8 App Developer Blog for the rest of the story, which features a short video

Rich mobile Web experiences on Windows Phone 7.5 – the ESPN.com case study. The Windows Phone Browser team has a goal of delivering the best Web browsing experience on a smartphone. This goal has many components within our team: from the UI of the browser, compatibility with a wide array of website layouts, and of course buttery-smooth rendering performance. However, even if we execute flawlessly on our end, we are missing a crucial piece - delivering a great Web experience is fundamentally a partnership between our team and Web developers. Achieving this goal means working together to ensure that your content and services are delightful for users to consume on Windows Phone. For more detail, read this May 2 post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog. Below is a screenshot of the ESPN.com experience on Windows Phone 7.5:

Cloud services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone: Windows Live, reimagined. Windows Live was first announced on Nov. 1, 2005, and in our press release we described it as “a set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all of the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with more safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web.” Since that time, we’ve been hard at work building software and services that deliver that promise, a foundation that we could rely on as we designed new versions of Windows as well as other Microsoft products. We’ve received lots of feedback about features and ways we could improve the software and services. And we’ve also received some feedback about the naming and marketing we have done. Windows 8 is a chance for us to act on that feedback and reintroduce you to the broadest and most widely used collection of services on the Internet. Read this May 2 post on Building Windows 8 for the rest of the story.

FISMA becomes latest security certification for Office 365. We're pleased to announce Office 365 was granted the Authority to Operate under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. FISMA is important to our customers because it creates a process for federal agencies to certify and accredit the security of their information management systems. IT solutions with FISMA certification and accreditation have federal agency approval for their use in line with the level of security established by that agency. Head on over to the Office 365 Blog for more detail.

Updates to Windows Azure Marketplace offer more flexibility and opportunity. Recent updates to the Windows Azure Marketplace promise to make things a little bit easier for publishers, developers and their customers. Read this May 4 post on the Windows Azure Blog for the whole story. And don’t miss the latest edition of the Windows Azure Community News Roundup.

That’s it for this edition of The Midweek Download! Thanks for stopping by The Official Microsoft Blog.

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/09/the-midweek-download-may-9th-edition-microsoft-research-on-display-at-chi-2012-more-windows-8-news-a-windows-phone-case-study-plus-metro-style-apps-in-windows-8-amp-more.aspx

Microsoft has a long tradition of tackling tough challenges at a global scale. We have always focused on how our technology can enrich people’s lives, build businesses, and inspire and change the world.

Working on the issues of energy use and environmental change provides another opportunity to make a difference in the world. It’s the right thing to do. And it’s also an opportunity to promote positive change, as the world transitions to new ways of using energy and managing natural resources. That’s why today, Microsoft is taking a significant step to further reduce our environmental footprint.

Beginning in fiscal year 2013 (which starts this July 1), Microsoft will be carbon neutral across all our direct operations including data centers, software development labs, air travel, and office buildings. We recognize that we are not the first company to commit to carbon neutrality, but we are hopeful that our decision will encourage other companies large and small to look at what they can do to address this important issue.

In addition to our commitment to carbon neutrality, the part I’m most excited about is our plan to infuse carbon awareness into every part of our business around the world. To achieve this goal, we have created an accountability model which will make every Microsoft business unit responsible for the carbon they generate – creating incentives for greater efficiency, increased purchases of renewable energy, better data collection and reporting, and an overall reduction of our environmental impact.

To put this into action, we’re creating a new, internal carbon fee within Microsoft, which will place a price on carbon. The price will be based on market pricing for renewable energy and carbon offsets, and will be applied to our operations in over 100 countries. The goal is to make our business divisions responsible for the cost of offsetting their own carbon emissions.

The carbon price and charge-back model is designed to provide an economic incentive for business groups across Microsoft to reduce carbon emissions through efficiency measures and increased use of renewable energy. Business operations impacted by the new carbon price include data centers, software development labs, office buildings, and business travel. For emissions not eliminated through efficiency measures, Microsoft will purchase renewable energy and carbon offsets. 

The carbon fee is another step in our broader company commitment to environmental leadership, from our facilities and data centers, to our supply chain, to the efficiency of our software products and services. We are continually looking for opportunities to advance these efforts. Here are just a few examples of steps we’ve taken recently:

• A smarter buildings pilot on Microsoft’s Redmond campus that uses software solutions to make our buildings more energy efficient, projected to achieve energy savings of approximately $1.5 million dollars in fiscal year 2013, and earn back our investment in only 18 months.

• Microsoft is working with CarbonSystems  to implement an Enterprise Sustainability Platform, which automatically captures and extracts environmental data from multiple sources, uncovering more opportunities to identify how we can reduce our carbon footprint.

• We are challenging ourselves and our industry to think about where energy is used and potentially wasted in IT. We have published a whitepaper which we hope will catalyze a stronger focus on the large range of opportunities throughout our industry to drive for greater efficiency.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized Microsoft as the third largest purchaser of green power in the U.S., purchasing more than 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually. This is enough green power to offset 46 percent of our electricity use, and is the annual equivalent to taking more than 150,000 passenger vehicles off the road.

We believe climate change is a serious challenge requiring a comprehensive and global response from all sectors of society. This carbon charge-back model is one way we seek to both reduce our impact and test new approaches which we hope are broadly useful for other organizations.

For more information on our carbon neutral strategy, read our whitepaper, “Becoming Carbon Neutral: How Microsoft is Becoming Lean, Green, and Accountable.”  You can also read more about this and our other environmental efforts on Microsoft’s blog Software Enabled Earth.

Posted by Kevin Turner
Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/08/making-carbon-neutrality-everyone-s-responsibility-at-microsoft.aspx

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 & Noble, Microsoft form strategic partnership. Barnes & Noble and Microsoft announced on Monday the formation of a strategic partnership in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary, which will build upon the history of strong innovation in digital reading technologies from both companies. The partnership will accelerate the transition to e-reading, which is revolutionizing the way people consume, create, share and enjoy digital content. Head on over to the Microsoft News Center to get the full story.

Microsoft Research opens lab in New York City. In the two decades since the formation of Microsoft Research, the organization has grown from its beginnings on Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Wash., into a global research force with 12 labs across four continents — all devoted to advancing the state of the art in computing research and contributing cutting-edge advancements to Microsoft products. Beginning May 3, that lab count increases to 13 with the creation of Microsoft Research New York City. Visit the Microsoft News Center for more detail.

The web Marketplace launches in 22 new countries. We’re happy to announce that nearly two dozen new online stores for Windows Phone apps and games went live around the world earlier this week. The new web Marketplaces are available in Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Israel, Thailand, and Vietnam. For more on this story, read this Wednesday post on the Windows Phone Blog. Also, don’t miss this April 27 post that talks about five great Windows Phone apps. Finally, if you’re a Star Wars fan, you HAVE to check out this Next at Microsoft post on the Kinect for Star Wars app. Imagine all your tweets scrolling upward into space just like the opening crawl in all six of George Lucas’ seminal space opera films. That’s a screenshot of the app below.

Bing gets a new look. Bing is getting a new look. You will notice a fresh, de-cluttered experience designed to help you find the results you want faster. Over the past few months, we’ve run dozens of experiments to determine how you read our pages to deliver the link you’re looking for. Based on that feedback, we’ve tuned the site to make the entire page easier to scan, removing unnecessary distractions, and making the overall experience more predictable and useful. This refreshed design helps you do more with search—and gives us a canvas for bringing future innovation to you. The Bing Search Blog has the rest of the story, so head on over there.

Spike TV to present “Xbox: Entertainment Evolved" from E3 2012. On Thursday, Spike TV announced that they’ll be carrying our 90-minute E3 Briefing ‘Xbox: Entertainment Evolved’ LIVE from LA next month. Tune in to Spike TV on Monday, June 4 at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT to catch all the news. Check out this post on Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson for more detail and a cool promo video.

Microsoft and Aspen Avionics ink exFAT licensing agreement. Earlier this week, we announced a licensing agreement with Aspen Avionics, a manufacturer of general aviation cockpit display systems. What’s noteworthy about the announcement is that it is the first agreement forged by Microsoft in the avionics industry, and is also the first agreement we have announced in the commercial sector, thus demonstrating that exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) is great for commercial and consumer applications alike. Read this Thursday post on Microsoft on the Issues for more detail.

Connecting Asia’s Unconnected - an affordable and innovative approach. Providing universal Internet connectivity, at broadband speed, is increasingly important for fostering economic and social development in Asia. That is why, this week at the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Annual Meeting in the Philippines, the ADB NGO Center, in partnership with Microsoft and hardware partner Adaptrum, demonstrated innovative wireless technology that has the power to transform citizens’ lives and stimulate economic growth. Check out the Microsoft Citizenship Blog for the rest of the story.

That’s it for this edition of Weekend Reading! Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/04/weekend-reading-may-4th-edition-microsoft-and-barnes-amp-noble-team-up-on-e-reading-microsoft-research-s-opens-a-lab-in-new-york-city-and-marketplace-launches-in-22-new-countries.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on changes and improvements in the Windows Phone Marketplace, Kinect and Kinect SDK winning the Design of the Year award and a new blog for Windows 8 app developers.

Changes and improvements in the Windows Phone Marketplace. In this Monday post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, Todd Brix lays out in substantial detail the latest steps we’re taking in our ongoing effort to keep the quality bar high in our rapidly growing Marketplace. Todd focuses on four areas – avoiding trademark trouble, keeping the quality bar high, cleaning up key words and refining our approach to content policy enforcement. And don’t miss an earlier post from Todd on two changes to Marketplace and an update on nine new markets.

Kinect and Kinect SDK win Design of the Year award. Last week saw the Design of the Year 2012 award announced and the Olympic Torch won top honors. In the digital category our very own Kinect and Kinect SDK won and in graphics our friends at Nokia won for their Nokia Pure Font. Check out this April 27 post on Next at Microsoft for the rest of the story. And don’t miss Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton’s report on how Metro style has found its way into Microsoft Dynamics.

Visual Studio brings gamification to Windows Azure development. In listening to the developer community, the Channel 9 team at Microsoft has heard the positive feedback about Visual Studio Achievements loud and clear: you want more. More than 80,000 downloads of the extension demonstrated that developers see achievement badges as a fun way to socially share the accomplishments they earn in what can sometimes be the lonely act of writing code. New badges are now available. Read more about it in this April 26 post on The Official Microsoft Blog.

New blog for Windows 8 app developers. As you may have heard, we now have a new Windows 8 app developer blog to help you build Metro style apps on our new Windows 8 platform. In the new blog, we share our learning and converse with you as you enter the new world of Windows Metro style app development. The blog complements the Windows Dev Center and community forums, and you’ll see a lot of pointers to content and samples to help you get going. We talk about our experiences building the platform and building apps, pitfalls to avoid, tips and tricks, why we made certain choices in the platform, and anything else we can pass along to help you create amazing apps. Head on over to the Developing for Windows Blog for more detail.

Kirill Tatarinov weighs in on the future of business. As president of the Microsoft Business Solutions Division, Kirill Tatarinov oversees the company’s efforts to define and deliver business applications. In this Tuesday feature story on the Microsoft News Center, he lays out his vision for the future of business solutions.

Working with the Toshiba Portégé Z830. This is for all you gearheads out there. The Portégé Z830 is one of the lightest 13” PC on the market, weighing in at just under 2.5 pounds, and incredibly thin at just 16 mm (a literal hair over 0.6”). The Portégé Z830 is an Ultrabook built for business with features that include a spill-resistant LED backlit keyboard, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, Gigabit Ethernet port and VGA port. Don’t miss Lee Sabow’s review of the Z830 on the Windows For Your Business Blog. That’s the Z830 below. And if that’s not enough for you, check out this slide show of Lenovo laptops and PCs on the Microsoft News Center.

Building cross-browser plugin-free experiences. We've talked about how the transition to a plug-in free Web is happening today. Lots of Web browsing happens on devices that simply don’t support plug-ins. Websites that use plug-ins need to understand what their customers experience when browsing plug-in free. In case you missed it, check out Rey Bango’s blog post where he lays out clear guidance for developers on building cross-browser plugin-free experiences and addressing issues like cross-browser CSS, media playback, and touch.

Here’s to the first release from MS Open Tech: Redis on Windows. The past few weeks have been very busy in our offices as we announced the creation of Microsoft Open Technologies Inc. Now that the dust has settled it’s time for us to resume our regular cadence in releasing code, and we are happy to share with you the very first deliverable from our new company: a new and significant iteration of our work on Redis on Windows, the open-source, networked, in-memory, key-value data store. Read this April 26 post on the Interoperability @ Microsoft Blog for the whole story.

That’s it for this edition of The Midweek Download. Thanks for reading!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/05/02/the-midweek-download-may-2nd-edition-windows-phone-marketplace-news-kinect-wins-a-design-award-a-new-blog-for-windows-8-app-developers-plus-visual-studio-achievements-amp-more.aspx

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

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/27/weekend-reading-april-27th-edition-the-skye-for-windows-phone-apps-is-here-wordament-comes-to-marketplace-amp-don-t-miss-the-beauty-of-bing-desktop.aspx

In listening to the developer community, the Channel 9 team at Microsoft has heard the positive feedback about Visual Studio Achievements loud and clear: you want more. More than 80,000 downloads of the extension demonstrated that developers see achievement badges as a fun way to socially share the accomplishments they earn in what can sometimes be the lonely act of writing code.

New badges are available today, so now developers can unlock new achievements when using Visual Studio to write code for Windows Azure. Badges can be earned for proper cloud development usage, mobile+cloud scenarios, social gaming scenarios, or a dozen other developer-related accomplishments.

The power of “What If?”

Both crazy and pragmatic ideas have emerged by simply answering the question “what if?” For example, the Kinect for Windows SDK was created because a community of people wondered, "What if we used the Kinect for interactions other than gaming?" Similarly, Project Detroit was built because the drive-able lounge chair demonstrated on stage at MIX through motion-sensor automation begged the question: “What if we build a car?”

Last January, a great question was posed by a developer in the Channel 9 community who asked “What if Visual Studio had achievements?” on his While True blog. The community conversation sparked by the blog post as well as the Reddit post catalyzed the Visual Studio Achievements Extension. Given the growing importance of developing in the cloud, the team has just released new achievements for development in Windows Azure.

Got to play the game to win it

In the same way that FourSquare and Xbox users earn badges for the activities occurring within the community, Visual Studio now has 15 new achievements for developing applications in Windows Azure, bringing the total number of badges to 47.

Some achievements even seamlessly integrate the previously announced Windows Azure Toolkit for Mobile Development and Social Gaming. The program extension is complete with fun badges, a public leaderboard and built in social media sharing options. With achievements like “Show Me the Cache” for using Windows Azure Caching and “Tired of Waiting In Line” for using timeout features of Windows Azure queues, we’re excited for more people to get started and show off their Azure coding skills.

For MSDN subscribers, Microsoft Partners or BizSpark members this is also a great opportunity to take advantage of the free Windows Azure Benefits.

Links for additional information

· Download the updated Visual Studio Achievements Extension here

· Read more on Channel9

· Check out the latest Achievements Leaderboard

Posted by Karsten Januszewski
Software Development Engineer, Channel 9, Microsoft

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/26/visual-studio-brings-gamification-to-windows-azure-development.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got the lowdown on the new and more powerful SkyDrive, memory usage in Windows 8, what’s next for Windows Intune and a few bits and pieces for Windows Phone developers.

Available now: A more powerful SkyDrive. Over the last year we’ve been hard at work building SkyDrive alongside Windows 8, setting out a unique approach to designing personal cloud storage for billions of people by bringing together the best aspects of file, app, and device clouds. Now, we’re excited to take another big step towards our vision by making SkyDrive far more powerful. There are new storage options, apps that connect your devices to SkyDrive, and a more powerful device cloud that lets you “fetch” any file from a Windows PC. Taken together with access from popular mobile phones and a browser, you can now take your SkyDrive with you anywhere, connect it to any app that works with files and folders, and get all the storage you need—making SkyDrive the most powerful personal cloud storage service available. Read this Monday post on Building Windows 8 to get the rest of the story. Below is a screenshot of SkyDrive across a multitude of devices.

Attention developers! CNET weighs in on how Windows Phone can help raise your profile. In this Monday story, CNET writer Roger Cheng writes, “If you're a developer looking to make a splash, Windows Phone is the place to do it.” Cheng cites excitement around the Nokia Lumia 900 plus the “combined resources” of Microsoft, Nokia and AT&T. Check it out. Also, be sure to check out this Tuesday post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog about the need for app developers to respond to user input and this April 19 post on launching the Memory Profiler, which shipped with the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.

Memory usage in Windows 8. Previously, we’ve discussed the Metro style application model using Windows Runtime. An important attribute of this app model is that apps are suspended when they are no longer visible to the user. Suspending Metro style apps in the background is a good thing, as it conserves CPU for other apps and ensures that background apps don’t cause activity that can consume resources, thereby improving the battery life and increasing responsiveness. But what about the memory these apps are taking up when suspended? Starting with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, whenever Windows detects memory pressure on the system, it will repurpose nearly all the memory that suspended Metro style apps would otherwise hold onto. Windows 8 can reclaim this memory without having to terminate an app. Want more detail? Check out this April 17 post on Building Windows 8.

Managing "BYO" PCs in the enterprise (including WOA). “With more and more people providing their own hardware for work, the ‘bring your own’ PC is becoming more commonplace and IT Pros want to have the confidence that they can support their clients who follow this trend,” writes Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division. “The presence of BYO does not change the need for IT Pros to manage, secure, and remain accountable for the network assets of an organization, and we all know that written policies can only go so far.” This April 19 post on Building Windows 8 focuses on managing WOA PCs, which are designed with this "consumerization of IT" in mind.

Introducing Windows 8 Enterprise and Enhanced Software Assurance. Last month, we talked about how Windows 8 is Windows reimagined for our business customers. Earlier this week, we shared information on the Windows 8 editions we’ll be making available to customers when Windows 8 becomes generally available. Now, we want to talk about what the Windows 8 Enterprise edition will offer customers when it becomes available, and how the Software Assurance benefits are changing to better meet our customers’ needs. Read this April 18 post on the Windows for Your Business Blog for the rest of the story. Also, don’t miss this April 18 post on what’s next for Windows Intune.

Guidelines for building touch-friendly sites. In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, IE10 enables fast and fluid multi-touch experiences on the Web. Most sites work fine with touch in IE10 with no changes to the site. This post provides four simple guidelines to ensure your customers who use touch can most effectively use your site. We’ve written before about how new input devices and touch screens make the Web more fun, interactive, and immersive. We’ve also talked about the importance of ensuring a no compromise browsing experience in IE10 so the real Web works great with touch. Read this April 20 post on the IEBlog for the rest of the story.

Windows Azure Community News Roundup. Check out the latest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Read this April 20 post on the Windows Azure Blog to see the highlights.

Microsoft waives Windows Azure bandwidth fees for university researchers. Microsoft and Internet2 announced on Tuesday a new agreement enabling member universities to take advantage of Windows Azure to open up additional collaborative, instructional and research opportunities in the cloud. The announcement was made at the Spring 2012 Internet2 Member Meeting in Arlington, Va. The agreement is a significant step in making cloud computing more accessible and affordable for all researchers and instructors, and is a key step toward supporting the National Science Foundation’s Data Sharing Policy and Data Management Plan Requirements for the greater research community. Read this press release for the full story.

That’s a wrap for this edition of The Midweek Download! Thanks for reading!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/25/the-midweek-download-april-25th-edition-introducing-a-more-muscular-skydrive-the-latest-on-windows-8-plus-windows-intune-windows-phone-and-internet-explorer-10.aspx

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 cool interactive comic book collaboration called "The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator".

Master Chief returns with worldwide launch of “Halo 4” on Nov. 6. The countdown has begun for the landmark entertainment event millions of fans worldwide have been anticipating for more than four years. “Halo 4,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the iconic franchise that has shaped entertainment history, will launch worldwide on Nov. 6. Set four years after the events in “Halo 3,” Master Chief returns to confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Read more about it on the Microsoft News Center.

Announcing the Windows 8 editions. We have talked about Windows 8 as Windows reimagined, from the chipset to the user experience. This also applies to the editions available – we have worked to make it easier for customers to know what edition will work best for them when they purchase a new Windows 8 PC or upgrade their existing PC. For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. Windows RT is the newest member of the Windows family – also known as Windows on ARM or WOA, as we’ve referred to it previously. Check out this Monday post on Blogging Windows, which features a helpful chart designed to help you find the appropriate version of Windows 8, for the rest of the story.

Ten things you didn’t know your Lumia 900 could do. If you are a proud new Lumia owner—or just new to Windows Phone period—then you’ll probably want to check out the fun and handy story Nokia ran on its official blog recently: 10 things you never knew your Lumia could do. It covers everything from saving battery power to finding a good nearby pub. Also, check out this Monday post on the Windows Phone Blog announcing the availability of an updated Bing Translator app, and don’t forget to check out the final results of the Lumia 900 poll on The Official Microsoft Blog. Finally, there’s this April 12 post on the Office Blog that shows how the Office Hub on Windows Phone really shines on the Lumia 900, pictured below.

The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator. OK, this is just plain cool. As reported in Wired UK and elsewhere, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team has collaborated with “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead” director Edgar Wright and Marvel and Lucasfilm illustrator Tommy Lee Edwards to create an HTML5-powered interactive comic book story called The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator. It’s the story of a science-fiction writer with a SERIOUS case of writer’s block. Wired UK reporter Duncan Geere writes, “Visitors to brandongenerator.com will get a seven-minute video that explains the story, and then will be able to explore Brandon’s flat, a little like an adventure game. Clicking on different items will allow you to submit prose, sketches and voice that — once moderated — will appear in a gallery on the web. The best ideas will be used to continue the story from that point.” How can you NOT go to this site?

And now a word from Skype Division President Tony Bates. “As this presentation from the Pew Internet Organization details, regardless of what students choose to do after they are finished with their education, technology inevitably will play a role,” Bates writes in this April 12 post on The Big Blog. “I've heard first-hand the stories of the positive benefits for education. Recently, students from an Englewood, NJ school district connected with students in China through a video conferencing session to test their Mandarin skills.” Check it out.

Bing Bar 7.1 rolling out. We’re constantly looking for ways to make Bing Bar more useful. The primary way we do this is based on how you are using the product - which features are used most, which aren’t being used. You’ve told us that you love the clean look, convenience and quick performance of Bing Bar. You also told us that the app buttons we delivered in Bing Bar 7.0 and subsequent releases were valuable and useful. Now, we are excited to release Bing Bar 7.1. This new release, based on your feedback, provides richer access to your social connections, new entertainment options, and updated versions of the most popular Bing Bar apps. Read all about it in this Tuesday post on the Bing Search Blog.

CR Magazine announces 2012 Best Corporate Citizens List. Corporate Responsibility Magazine has announced that Microsoft was named among the Top 3 Best Corporate Citizens for 2012. CR Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens List is known as one of the world’s top corporate responsibility rankings. Read this Wednesday post on the Microsoft Citizenship Blog for the rest of the story.

MSN and FoxSports.com team on exclusive Summer Olympics coverage. The lighting of the Olympic torch in London this summer is 100 days away. To mark the occasion, MSN and FOXSports.com are launching a special section (http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics) devoted to coverage of the London Games. The section will feature articles, current and former Olympian profiles, videos and photo galleries. FOXSports.com award-winning contributors including Jason Whitlock, Mark Kriegel, Jen Floyd Engel, and Bill Reiter will be updating the site from London for the entirety of the Games. Check out this Wednesday post on The MSN Blog for more detail.

Earth Day 2012: A progress report. Three years ago, Microsoft adopted a broad environmental strategy that included commitments both to reduce the impact of our operations and products and to accelerate the use of information technology in addressing serious environmental issues. As part of the strategy we laid out three years ago, Microsoft committed that by 2012 we would reduce carbon emissions at least 30 percent per unit of revenue below our 2007 baseline. We’re pleased to report that we’ve met this goal through a combination of energy efficiency measures and an investment in high-quality externally verified renewable energy and carbon reduction projects. For the rest of the story, read this Monday post on the Software Enabled Earth Blog.

That’s a wrap for this edition of Weekend Reading! Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/20/weekend-reading-april-20th-edition-master-chief-returns-in-halo-4-the-latest-on-windows-8-amp-don-t-miss-the-random-adventures-of-brandon-generator.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got two behind-the-scenes stories of developers from the Windows Phone team, a story from Next at Microsoft on the blending of the physical and digital worlds and more.

Meet the team making Windows Phone faster. New models of Windows Phone will be equipped with LTE (long-term evolution) capabilities, thanks to a small team of engineers at Microsoft. The Windows Phone Customer Experience Engineering (CXE) team recently finished a project that makes Windows Phones on the AT&T network, such as the new Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II phones announced last week, LTE-capable. For more detail, check out this feature story on the Microsoft News Center. Below is a photo of Kathy Davis, one of the CXE team members.

Do you Rowi? Windows Phone Twitter app a big hit. Rowi may sound like some kind of rare New Zealand bird (which actually, it is) but it’s also a popular new Twitter app for Windows Phone created by two Microsoft employees. The moonlight creation of Erik Porter and Nathan Heskew, Rowi was developed to fully tap the social networking capabilities of the Windows Phone. Rowi lets Twitter users receive push notifications, and supports right-to-left (RTL) languages, the ability to pin Tweets to the Windows Phone start screen, and easier messaging and photo previews. Mosey on over to the Microsoft News Center for the rest of the story. That’s Porter and Heskew below.

New media services and architectural guidance for the cloud. At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2012 conference earlier this week, Microsoft announced new media services and guidance to enable content providers and customers to realize the power of cloud computing. The new cloud-based Windows Azure Media Services is designed to make creating, managing and delivering media to any device easier than ever by offering a comprehensive set of ready-to-use first- and third-party media technologies. Microsoft also published a new Broadcast Reference Architecture that offers prescriptive guidance on how media companies can architect their solutions to improve systems performance management as they move toward the cloud. Read this press release for all the details.

A few bits and pieces for Windows Phone developers. Mike Battista on the Windows Phone Developer Blog continued his series on optimizing apps for lower cost devices Tuesday with this post on handling feature reductions. And late last week, Todd Brix blogged about adjusting to the rapid growth of Marketplace and the ramifications for developers.

Blending physical and digital worlds. Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton had been hearing the phrase “blending of the physical and digital” around Microsoft for a while and during TechForum, an event Craig Mundie hosted here in Redmond back in February, the phrase was widely used. Then again at TechFest a few weeks later. “There’s a good reason for this – many of the demos on show at both events highlighted the blending of the physical and digital. The Kinect sensor has been a key part of the shift as with it we now have technology that can see, hear and to a degree understand (voice),” Clayton writes in this Tuesday post on Next. Check it out.

Announcing Windows Azure Accelerator for Startups. The Microsoft Accelerator series, powered by TechStars, recently announced the finalists in the Kinect Accelerator program. Based on the success of that program, the Microsoft Accelerator Program team on Tuesday announced the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure. Powered by TechStars, the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure will host 10 companies for a three-month deep immersion program focused on building businesses that take advantage of the cloud. Through this program, Microsoft and TechStars will help entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators to bring to life a wide range of business ideas that leverage the limitless possibilities enabled by Windows Azure. Read this post on the Windows Azure Blog for more detail. Also, don’t miss the latest edition of the Windows Azure Community News Roundup.

Microsoft steps up engagement with open source and standards communities. Microsoft has announced a new wholly owned subsidiary known as Microsoft Open Technologies Inc. to advance the company’s investment in openness – including interoperability, open standards and open source. Jean Paoli’s existing Interoperability Strategy team will form the nucleus of this new subsidiary, and he will serve as President of Microsoft Open Technologies Inc. Read all about it on the Interoperability @ Microsoft Blog.

Microsoft Researcher achieves alma mater’s distinction. In Boston on Tuesday, in the Great Room of the Massachusetts State House, Victor Bahl, director of Microsoft Research Redmond’s Mobile Computing Research Center (MCRC), was introduced as one of six recipients of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s 2012 Distinguished Alumni Awards. The awards are presented annually to those who have built on their university experience to attain notable achievements in the business, public or community-service realms. Bahl, 47 and pictured left, earned the recognition with a superlative career that has featured a series of firsts in networking research, and on March 1, 2011, he was named head of the newly formed MCRC. He recently took time from his busy schedule to reflect on his career and his professional motivations in an interview with Microsoft Research.

That’s it for the edition of The Midweek Download. Thanks for reading!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/18/the-midweek-download-april-18th-edition-two-cool-windows-phone-developer-stories-blending-the-physical-and-digital-worlds-plus-windows-azure-amp-microsoft-research.aspx

It’s that time again – time for a little Weekend Reading. You know what to do…

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the Halo 4 soundtrack. Are you salivating over the prospect for any shred of information, no matter how minute, about Halo 4? Then check out this Thursday post on Next at Microsoft featuring two videos that give you a behind-the-scenes look at the soundtrack and the people making it happen. That’s one of the videos below, just to give you a little taste. Also, don’t miss this Thursday Next at Microsoft post about how Kinect for Windows is helping girls dress like Barbie. Finally, check out this Thursday post on The Official Microsoft Blog about the Xbox 360 maintaining its position as the top console in the U.S.

Microsoft announces largest cloud customer ever. Microsoft and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced Thursday that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud deployment will expand students’ access to high-quality technical education and collaboration. For more detail, read this press release on the Microsoft News Center and this post on The Official Microsoft Blog.

Spotify play button now live on Wonderwall. Earlier this week, Spotify unveiled the Spotify Play Button which allows you to launch and listen to songs from any website that has a Spotify Play Button. MSN and BermanBraun Interactive are pleased to be a part of the experience with Wonderwall (www.wonderwall.com) serving as the official entertainment and celebrity launch destination for the button. Read this Wednesday post on The MSN Blog for the whole story.

Forty million people – how far Skype’s come. Between three and four millennia ago, sometime between 2000 BC and 1000 BC, the world's population stood at 40 million people. Early civilizations like the Egyptians, Phoenicians and the Minoans focused their trading efforts on the sea, building centers of commerce all along the Mediterranean. Letters using these early peoples' alphabet took weeks or months to travel on the sea or overland by boat, horse or foot. Well, the world certainly has changed a lot since then. One of the biggest changes is one we reached today - when 40 million concurrent users were signed onto Skype all at once. To read more, check out this Tuesday post on The Big Blog.

Creating opportunities for youth one club at a time. It’s been said that if you can help a young person take the first step, chances are they will put themselves on a path to succeed. It’s why, as a company, we’re focused on creating opportunities for youth. Since 2000 we've worked together with Boys & Girls Club of America on the Club Tech initiative. It provides young people with access to technology, and the skills they need to use that technology to improve education and develop job skills. Now, with Boys & Girls Club and Comcast, we’re announcing the latest extension of Club Tech. Read this Wednesday post on the Microsoft Corporate Citizenship Blog for the rest of the story.

Marshmallow People and HTML5 come together in new arcade style game. Back in March at Internet Explorer's Badger Palooza event at the 2012 SXSW Interactive festival we unveiled an arcade machine running Internet Explorer 9 featuring an HTML5 game based on the popular animated short film “Marshmallow People” from FilmCow. It was so popular, we’ve made the game, developed by Bradley and Montgomery, available for everyone – be sure to check out Marshmallow People: Bored to Death. Check out this Wednesday post on the Exploring IE Blog for more detail.

And so we wrap up another edition of Weekend Reading. Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/13/weekend-reading-april-13th-edition-behind-the-scenes-of-the-halo-4-soundtrack-microsoft-announces-the-biggest-cloud-customer-ever-plus-msn-spotify-amp-skype-hits-40m-users.aspx

Xbox 360 continued to hold the number one spot in the U.S., selling more units in March than any other console. It was the Xbox 360’s fifteenth consecutive month as the best-selling console in the U.S. Below is a screenshot from "Mass Effect 3", one of the top-selling games in March.

NPD highlights in March include:

· Holding 42 percent share of current-generation console sales, Xbox 360 sold 371,000 units in March, maintaining the number-one console spot in the U.S. This marks the thirteenth consecutive month Xbox 360 has held more than 40 percent of the current-generation console market share.

· Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in March (hardware, software and accessories) reached $430 million, the most for any console in the U.S. and more than the spend on PS3 and Wii combined.

· During the month of March, Xbox 360 held five of the top 10 U.S. console game titles including: “Mass Effect 3,” “Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City,” “NBA 2K12,” “SSX” and “Major League Baseball 2K12.”

Last month, Xbox 360 delivered new voice-controlled TV apps from Comcast and HBO GO in the U.S., and MLB TV throughout North America, making it easier to enjoy your favorite TV shows, sports and music with voice control and Kinect voice search. Xbox has grown rapidly to become the best-selling Internet-connected entertainment device for TV. Since the entertainment apps on Xbox 360 started rolling out last December, total hours spent on Xbox LIVE globally has grown 30 percent year over year.

Later this year, Xbox 360 will deliver a strong portfolio of blockbuster titles, experiences and add-on content, including additions to the famed “Halo” and “Fable” franchises and groundbreaking experiences like “Kinect Sesame Street TV” and “Nat Geo TV.”

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/12/xbox-360-continues-run-as-no-1-u-s-console-in-march.aspx

Anthony Salcito

This week, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) branch of India’s Ministry of Human Resources and Development made a big bet on delivering a brighter future for not only India’s up-and-comers, but for the future of India itself. Recognizing that an educated population is one natural resource that increases in value as it increases in size, AICTE announced the deployment of Microsoft Live@Edu to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India.

Now more than ever, governments all over the world face increasingly tough decisions on how, when and where to invest for ensuring economic stability and spearheading growth. India, in particular, continues to push the envelope on innovation with its current strategy to invest heavily in education.

Representatives from Microsoft and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced at a press conference in New Delhi, India, that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. [From left to right – Yogesh Kocher (Director, Business Development, Microsoft) , Dr. Mantha (Chairman, AICTE), Sanket A (General Manager, Microsoft India) , Kapil Sibal (Hon. Minister for Human Resources & Development, India), Tarun Malik (Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft)].

Today, there are pockets of innovation happening across India’s school systems, but antiquated technology in India’s technical colleges and institutes has undermined opportunities for successful student outcomes. A lot of students experience an inability to access the tools critical to academic success that, for some, translates to a lack of know-how needed to succeed in the workforce. The current IT system does not allow students, faculty and staff to communicate from anywhere at any time. The cloud solves this problem, enabling a seamless collaboration experience.

AICTE selected Live@Edu based on a critical need for a world-class cloud productivity solution for their students that could grow and evolve with ever-changing student needs. The decision means that more than 7.5 million students, educators and staff will soon have access to free, cloud-hosted communications and collaboration services. The impact to students’ improved quality of education extends beyond collegiate success by enabling a smooth transition for students from college to workforce. Live@Edu is the leading communications and collaboration suite in the cloud for education, with more than 22 million people using the service worldwide.

When it comes to belief in the power of education to transform lives and entire economies, India’s Ministry of Human Resources and Development and Microsoft also share a common belief that successful outcomes for students require more than just a product. Unlike other companies, it is Microsoft’s unique ability to offer additional support through programs like BizSpark – a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to Microsoft software development tools and connecting them with key industry players – that inspired AICTE to choose Live@Edu for their students.

A quality education is the key to economic opportunity, not only for individuals, but for their communities. I applaud India for recognizing the time has never been better to commit to providing modern-day classroom tools needed for students to thrive.

Posted by Anthony Salcito
Vice President, Worldwide Education, Microsoft

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/12/india-ministry-selects-live-edu-in-microsoft-s-largest-cloud-deployment-ever-to-7-5-million-people.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on intelligent systems, the Windows Phone SDK, pinned sites in Windows 8 and much more. Check ‘em out.

Talking intelligent systems. Anyone who has followed Next at Microsoft knows that the blog’s editor, Steve Clayton, is fascinated by intelligent systems and what they mean for the future of computing. For the past week or two, Clayton’s been sitting down with various players in the computing space to talk about the impact of intelligent systems. Check out the video below of Clayton talking with IDC’s Mario Morales. And don’t miss this earlier talk he had with Intel’s Ton Steenman.

Windows 8 and the Windows Phone SDK. Last month, the Windows Phone team posted to let developers know that it was aware of some of the challenges that were present in running the Windows Phone SDK on the Consumer Preview of Windows 8. In that post, we mentioned that we were working on addressing those problems. We then followed up with the announcement of the release of the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 update, which does unblock the use of our SDK on Win 8, (although not officially supported). With regard to existing applications: today’s Windows Phone applications and games will run on the next major version of Windows Phone. For the rest of this story, read this April 5 post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog. Also, don’t miss this Tuesday post about reducing memory usage in Windows Phone apps.

Pinned sites in Windows 8. The Windows 8 Start screen is the best place to find and stay connected to all your favorite apps and content. App tiles are alive with activity and show you fresh and tailored content so you know what’s new in your world. We’ve written about Internet Explorer 10’s Metro style browsing experience on Windows 8. This April 3 post on the IEBlog describes in detail IE10’s pinned sites and their availability on the Windows 8 Start screen—complete with site-centric visuals and badge notifications to let you know there is new content. We’ll also walk through the Web developer details to support pinned sites.

Introducing User Experience Virtualization and App-V 5.0. Microsoft recently announced a new product will join its Desktop Virtualization family – User Experience Virtualization (UE-V). We also announced that our flagship application virtualization product is being updated to its next major version – Application Virtualization 5.0 (App-V 5.0). Read this April 4 post on the Windows for Your Business Blog for the rest of the story.

Microsoft Researcher recognized. For more than half his life, Kevin Schofield of Microsoft Research has been an active participant in the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI). He’s a champion of the group’s research, and his contributions underscore the importance he places on volunteer work. In mid-February, though, he received a bit of unexpected SIGCHI news: he’d won the SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award. Read this Tuesday post on Inside Microsoft Research for more detail. That's Schofield to the left.

BuildNewGames.com to help developers write cross-browser code. BuildNewGames.com, a new site to make building web games easier for developers using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, is now live!Along with a new partnership with Bocoup, Microsoft announced @ JSConf the launch of this new site. You can read the post from Justin Garret, Senior Product Manager in the IE team, announcing the partnership and the new site launch. Check out this April 5 post on the Interoperability @ Microsoft Blog for the rest of the story.

Windows Azure Community News Roundup. Check out the 13th edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure.

That’s it for this edition of The Midweek Download! Thanks for reading!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/11/the-midweek-download-april-11th-edition-talking-about-intelligent-systems-on-next-windows-8-amp-the-windows-phone-sdk-plus-microsoft-research-amp-windows-azure.aspx

Earlier this week, Microsoft and Nokia launched the Lumia 900, the smartphone that beat out the competition to win the Best at CES award. Here’s what we at Microsoft want to know: which feature on the Lumia 900 gets you the most excited?

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/10/poll-which-feature-on-the-nokia-lumia-900-gets-you-the-most-excited.aspx

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Jo Harlow, executive vice president, Smart Devices, at Nokia.

Today, the Nokia Lumia 900 goes on sale in thousands of AT&T stores around the U.S. As many media have already commented, this is a major milestone for Nokia, for our partnership with Microsoft and for the Windows Phone ecosystem.

There have been many milestone moments in the last 12 months.

Toward the end of this month, we celebrate one year since the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, first announced in February 2011, was signed. In that time, we launched our first two Lumia phones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710, at Nokia World in October. We have since rolled those two products out to 42 countries around the world. Each country launch was a milestone in itself since it brought both Lumia and Windows Phone to many countries for the first time. When you see the crowds and the smiling faces at these launches, you quickly realize how much people welcome a different kind of smartphone and a different kind of approach. However, there is no question that two of the most highly anticipated launches we have conducted were the U.S. launch and the launch in China.

In the U.S., we first introduced Lumia with the Nokia Lumia 710 on T-Mobile USA. The response has been encouraging. This was billed as a U.S. re-entry for Nokia, and it seems we were right to start by targeting the 150 million people in America who were still to purchase a smartphone. The Lumia 710 is perfect for someone who wants a no-nonsense smartphone, but still wants great performance and access to the same smartphone experiences enjoyed on high-end phones.

Now comes the Nokia Lumia 900 with AT&T, designed for a different type of user – someone who wants a larger screen and a rich content experience, but still wants something that looks and feels different to the legions of monochromatic smartphones cluttering shelves. This is our first LTE phone and it is the result of early collaboration with Microsoft to bring LTE to the Windows Phone platform.

Creative and constructive collaboration has epitomized our relationship with Microsoft. Nokia came late to the Mango party, but thanks to Microsoft’s help, we were able to get two phones to market before the end of the year (when I promised one at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, I have to admit I thought I had a challenge on my hands – two was a sign of the great engineering talent and enthusiasm we have at both companies). It was also early collaboration and prioritization that led Microsoft to deliver an update to Windows Phone that brought support for lower price points and for China technology variants and language requirements. That in turn made it possible for Nokia to launch the Lumia 610, our fourth and most affordable Lumia smartphone, as well as to launch in China, where we plan to start selling phones very soon.

The significance of these last two announcements should not be underestimated. We hope that the Nokia Lumia 610 will provide a bridge for many people to buy their first smartphone and for that first smartphone to be a Windows Phone. According to market analysts, China is already the largest smartphone market in the world and is growing fast. Nokia’s policy has been that we will not launch phones in a market until we can provide adequate apps, care service and warranty support, so getting Chinese language support for Windows Phone was critical since China has been Nokia’s largest market for years.

But it is not only Nokia that benefits. Other manufacturers have also announced phones that would not have been possible without support for lower price points and the Chinese language. Our hope is that others will do the same, continuing to make better and more interesting phones so that even more people switch to Windows Phone, and even more mobile operators and developers invest in the platform just as T-Mobile, AT&T and China Telecom have done. The end result would be an even more compelling ecosystem for all of us.

This is only the start of the journey and we still have a long way to go before we start claiming victory. We continue working closely with Microsoft, identifying the priorities for the platform and for the ecosystem. At Nokia, we continue to focus on making great phones and to carrying the Windows Phone experience to more people around the world. We are realistic about the challenges ahead, but these are exciting times and we are thrilled that only one year after signing our agreement with Microsoft, we find ourselves in this situation, launching new products into the U.S. with great partners behind us and new possibilities ahead.

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/09/marking-a-major-milestone-in-an-eventful-year.aspx

In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on the latest reviews for the Nokia Lumia 900, the out-of-this-world release of Kinect Star Wars, plus Bing, MSN, Skype and more. Check ‘em out!

The reviews are in on the Nokia Lumia 900. The highly anticipated Nokia Lumia 900 becomes available on AT&T on April 8. Curious to hear what some in the technology press are saying about the phone? Check out these reviews from CNN Money, Mashable and Gizmodo for starters, and then head on over to the Windows Phone newsroom to see more. Below is a screenshot of the Lumia 900.

‘Kinect Star Wars:’ A tour de Force by fans, for fans. Abby Lee walked into a Seattle toy store recently and purchased two LEGO Darth Vader alarm clocks, a Star Wars pop-up book, and a few LEGO speeder bikes. The bemused checkout clerk asked if she was going to a birthday party. “No,” Lee replied. “I’m going to work.” In this feature story on the Microsoft News Center, meet the Force-sensitive fans who helped bring the Star Wars universe to life in “Kinect Star Wars,” the ultimate Jedi experience for Padawans of all ages. Check out the screenshot below of Kinect Star Wars:

Jasmine Villegas and Internet Explorer team up to bring fans a new music video experience. Fans of recording artist Jasmine Villegas have a new way to immerse themselves in her music as they become part of the new video for her hit song, “Just a Friend.” Villegas (known simply as Jasmine) partnered with Internet Explorer and the interactive storytellers at Digital Kitchen to create a highly interactive music video that tailors the experience to each viewer, giving everyone the opportunity to influence the outcome of the storyline, see their own Facebook photos throughout the video and even “talk” to Jasmine herself. Read this feature story on the Microsoft News Center for more detail. That's Jasmine below.

Exergamers wellness club uses Kinect and HealthVault to enhance seniors’ well-being. Orlando Estrada, 77, experienced so much pain and loss of balance after his two knee-replacement surgeries that he needed a wheelchair to get around. Estrada, a former design engineer at Hewlett Packard, attributes his remarkable recovery to his participation in the Exergamers Wellness Club, a project made possible by a public-private partnership between Microsoft, the Los Angeles Department of Aging, Partners in Care Foundation, and St. Barnabas Senior Services, a non-profit organization that operates a popular senior center in one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Los Angeles. To get the rest of this story, read this feature story on the Microsoft News Center and this Wednesday post on Microsoft on the Issues.

And in other Windows Phone news... The impending arrival of the Lumia 900 isn’t the only piece of news coming out of Windows Phone. Just in case you missed ‘em, check out these posts on the Windows Phone Blog on tips for transferring contacts and other stuff to a new Windows Phone, three pinworthy Windows Phone baseball apps and, finally, how to control access to apps on your kids’ Windows Phone.

Global Bing Video updates rolling out. We recently rolled out (and are still rolling out) a number of improvements to Bing Video. Available in all countries that currently support Bing Video, these updates make it easier to scan, explore and discover videos. Read this March 29 post on the Bing Search Blog to find out what’s new.

Cutting edge independent films debuting on MSN Movies. Starting today, MSN will host the exclusive, worldwide premiere of four cutting edge independent films on MSN Movies. With the intent of driving the theater experience onto the web, MSN has partnered with some of the world’s leading independent film auteurs to bring these very special films to audiences worldwide. From the depths of suburban horror, to one man’s journey to be with the woman he loves, MSN hopes these films will enlighten, entertain and even inspire. Read this April 1 post on The MSN Blog to learn more.

And don’t forget to check out the updated Skype shop. With the recent update to the Skype Shop, I thought it would be helpful for me to describe what the Shop is all about, new features this version of the Shop has, and how the Shop is beneficial to you. The goal of the Skype Shop is to connect people around the world with accessories that have been optimized to work with Skype. Read this March 30 post on The Big Blog for the rest of the story.

That’s a wrap for this edition of Weekend Reading! Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/06/weekend-reading-april-6th-edition-the-reviews-are-in-on-the-nokia-lumia-900-behind-the-scenes-of-kinect-star-wars-plus-bing-msn-amp-skype.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories on SQL Server 2012’s general availability, touch hardware and Windows 8, Windows Phone and the latest news from the Silicon Valley. Check ‘em out.

Live augmented reality with Kinect. Technology, Entertainment, Design released this video earlier this week and it’s circulating widely on the Web now. It shows Marco Tempest employing a Kinect sensor to deliver a live augmented reality presentation and it’s pretty dazzling stuff. It’s not immediately clear from the video what is going on but some photos from the TED blog help to explain – Marco is presenting on the TED stage and the AR tricks are projected on a screen behind him. Check out this Monday post on Next at Microsoft for the full story.

SQL Server 2012 now available. Microsoft announced on Monday the general availability (GA) of SQL Server 2012 for purchase and download. SQL Server 2012 has already been deployed for production use by hundreds of global, industry-leading customers, such as Volvo Car Corp., Revlon, the HSN, Klout and LG Chemical. SQL Server 2012 delivers a powerful new set of capabilities for mission-critical workloads, business intelligence and hybrid IT across traditional datacenters and public and private clouds. Read this Monday post on the SQL Server Team Blog for the rest of the story.

Touch hardware and Windows 8. The Windows team has continued to work in lock step with external hardware partners to fully embrace the experience we want for Windows 8. New Windows 8 PCs are coming, and while that is not a topic for this post, we at Microsoft are excited with what our hardware partners have in store for you. It’s worth reinforcing that Windows 8 will run on the hardware available today, and we are committed to making sure that happens. So you should feel confidence in installing the Consumer Preview on the machines that you own today. However, as much as we value compatibility, we also have to balance this with making Windows 8 really shine on new Windows 8 PCs. We’d like to provide you with some perspective on our efforts and how we will achieve this. Read this March 28 post on Building Windows 8 for more detail.

Windows Phone developers: optimize startup time. Fast startup is an essential component of any mobile application. It is the first impression a user has of your app and is the first chance you have to either impress or frustrate your users. If you're wondering just how fast your startup time can get on Windows Phone, use the VS Project Templates as a starting point. Create a new project, deploy it to the device, and experience how quickly the app starts up. Read this Tuesday post on The Windows Phone Developer Blog for more detail. Also, don’t miss this Monday post on globalizing and localizing a Windows Phone app or this March 28 post on Marketplace opening in 13 new markets.

Silicon Valley Roundup: Microsoft hosts Churchill Club forum on startups. With easier access to funding, technology and mentorship, the barrier to launching a startup has never been lower. However, creating a successful company and breaking through the noise has grown infinitely harder. Last Wednesday, Microsoft hosted the Churchill Club, Silicon Valley’s premier business and technology forum, for a discussion about the current startup environment. Read this Tuesday post on The Official Microsoft Blog for the latest quarterly roundup of Silicon Valley news and check out video from the event below.

Windows Azure Community News Roundup. Don’t miss the latest edition of the Windows Azure Community News Roundup, which features articles, blog posts, events and user group meetings.

That’s it for this edition of The Midweek Download! Don’t forget to stop by again Friday for another edition of Weekend Reading.

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/04/the-midweek-download-april-4th-edition-adding-dazzle-to-live-augmented-reality-with-kinect-sql-server-2012-is-released-plus-windows-8-windows-phone-amp-a-silicon-valley-news-roundup.aspx

With easier access to funding, technology and mentorship, the barrier to launching a startup has never been lower. However, creating a successful company and breaking through the noise has grown infinitely harder. Last Wednesday, Microsoft hosted the Churchill Club, Silicon Valley’s premier business and technology forum, for a discussion about the current startup environment.

Titled “A Running Start for Startups,” the panel took place on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Campus and brought together an enthusiastic group of speakers with their finger on the pulse of the industry. It was great to be among top notch speakers, including Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner, SoftTech VC; Paul Kedrosky, senior fellow, Kauffman Foundation; Don MacAskill, co-founder, CEO & chief geek, SmugMug; and Heidi Roizen, venture partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Keeping the discussion lively with thought-provoking questions, Eric Savitz, San Francisco bureau chief, Forbes, moderated the discussion.

From a broad view, we are amidst a large structural realignment in the world with regard to jobs. You see this on the news almost every day. As we move into a cloud services and device landscape, it is important to look at how we got here, to provide a sense of where the industry is heading and new opportunities that have yet to be discovered.

It is difficult to determine where the next disruptions will come from. In the past, fundamental new technologies would evolve into a platform that creates opportunity for new businesses and products. For example, the word processor produced new markets in spell-checking, and font management. You could argue that Adobe and the laser printer industry flourished because of the ubiquity of word processing on PCs.

However, the compounding of technologies over the years has created a major shift in the industry. The new normal is a broad set of tools and services that are stacked on top of previous technologies. This has made it challenging to predict where the market is heading. In this new landscape, we see an almost Frankenstein-like approach to pulling together various parts to create a whole. Though tough to get right, new services can be very powerful when all the pieces come together.

With so much support for entrepreneurs, from accelerators and incubators to early-stage investors and seed funds, there is less risk if you fail fast. The rapid explosion of companies is creating an interesting situation where good ideas rise to the top. However, it takes more than just an idea to run a company, grow your business and become a company that demonstrates hyper-growth. If you do not have a unique idea or a niche market, your significance rapidly disappears.

At Microsoft, we are motivated to create opportunities for entrepreneurs. By collaborating with a broad cross section of the startup ecosystem, we have a unique opportunity to help companies grow their business. Through our BizSpark program, we provide access to technology, mentorship and resources during the crucial first three years for companies. For example, we recently announced the finalists that will participate in our Kinect accelerator, powered by TechStars. Also, we recently launched BizSpark Plus, working with leading startup accelerators around the world and making available high-value services and product offers to their member startups. It is exciting to see the enthusiasm from new companies to build apps and businesses on our platforms.

The startup environment in the U.S. and around the world is growing by leaps and bounds, in no small part due to the increase in funding options and support that accelerators and companies are providing. Check out the video of the panel to join the conversation about where the explosion of endeavors could take the tech industry in the future.

Posted by Dan’l Lewin
Corporate Vice President, Strategic and Emerging Business Development, Microsoft

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/03/silicon-valley-roundup-microsoft-hosts-churchill-club-forum-on-startups.aspx

Innovation runs through everything we do at Microsoft. That’s why I’m delighted to announce the 2012 winners of Microsoft Next. When I launched this global competition last year, I wanted it to demonstrate the impact that innovative people throughout the company are having on our customers and partners. Our goal was to provide our employees with a platform for sharing their work, and the chance for great ideas to be celebrated.

Employees were invited to submit three-minute videos explaining how they are helping individuals and communities all over the world “Be What’s Next.” Twenty-seven winners were selected from 12 countries, and those winning videos are now open for a public vote, via this dedicated MSN site. Via this public vote, we will name one overall “People’s Choice” winner. Voting will remain open until April 11 at 11:59pm PDT.

Last year, we were overwhelmed by the quality, variety and depth of entries, which came from all over the world. This year, I’m pleased to report that the bar has been raised. From a Kinect-driven robot, to apps that help citizens report crime, to disease detection software and much more, people are doing great things with Microsoft technology.

I’d like to thank my fellow judges for this year’s contest: Chris Capossela, Chief Marketing Officer; Satya Nadella, President of the Server and Tools Business; Rick Rashid, Chief Research Officer; Ali Faramawy, corporate vice president for Middle East & Africa; Kathleen Hogan, corporate vice president for Worldwide Services; Orlando Ayala, Chairman, Emerging Markets; Sue Bevington, corporate vice president of SMSG HR; and Tracey Fellows, associate vice president for Asia Pacific.

Please help support these Microsoft innovators by voting for your People’s Choice winner for 2012. Enjoy, and thank you!

Posted by Jean-Philippe Courtois
President, Microsoft International

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/04/02/introducing-the-2012-global-microsoft-next-winners.aspx

In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on the highly anticipated Nokia Lumia 900, three major entertainment apps coming to Xbox LIVE and Bing and Skype working better together.

AT&T to sell Nokia Lumia 900 for under $100. We’ve got lots of great Windows Phone news for you this week, but perhaps the biggest piece of news is the announcement that the Nokia Lumia 900 will be available on AT&T for $99 on April 8. Read this Monday post on The Windows Phone Blog for the rest of the story. Also, Nokia announced it will sell its first CDMA Windows Phone in China – the 800C – starting in April. Finally, Microsoft also announced earlier this week that Marketplace has now opened in 13 new markets. To the left is a screenshot of the Lumia 900.

Three major entertainment apps launch on Xbox LIVE. Earlier this week, three major entertainment apps are now available for Xbox LIVE Gold members – Comcast XFINITY TV, HBO GO and MLB.TV, all with Kinect integration. Comcast launched the XFINITY TV on-demand service on Xbox 360, bringing its huge library of when- you-want-it entertainment to a console for the first time, including the new Streampix library. HBO GO on Xbox 360 launched their entire catalogue of live and on demand original content – that means every episode of every show, from the latest hits like Game of Thrones, to older favorites like The Sopranos. MLB.TV transforms sports entertainment by providing live and on demand games in HD, coupled with exclusive personalization features only found on Xbox 360 – jump between the action via the Mini Guide and watch two games at once with Split Screen. Read this Tuesday post on Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson for more detail. Below is a screenshot of the MLB.TV app:

Bing and Skype – better together. Bing and Skype are coming together to help users do more online. Skype has recently begun offering an easy way to download the Bing Bar, providing users with a fast way to search and easy access to Facebook, email, breaking news, weather, Bing Rewards, and more — no matter where you are on the web. And over the next few days we’ll be adding Skype Credit to our Bing Rewards redemption center. Read this Tuesday post on the Bing Search Blog for the whole story.

Microsoft and financial services industry leaders target cybercriminal operations. In our most complex effort to disrupt botnets to date, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit – in collaboration with Financial Services – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association, as well as Kyrus Tech Inc. – has executed a coordinated global action against some of the worst known cybercrime operations fueling online fraud and identity theft today. Read this Sunday post on The Official Microsoft Blog to find out more.

Microsoft and The Atlantic partner on digital town hall on jobs, education and youth. Earlier this week, Microsoft, partnership with The Atlantic, held a digital town hall at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. focused on jobs and how to educate the next generation to compete in the 21^st century economy. Read this Wednesday post on Microsoft on the Issues for the rest of the story. The town hall coincided with the release of a Microsoft-commissioned report from the International Youth Foundation on the opportunity divide.

StockTwits arrives on MSN Money. On Tuesday, we rolled out StockTwits streams on MSN Money. Now, when you visit ticker pages on MSN Money, you can see the real-time conversation about that stock alongside the financial highlights. The StockTwits stream includes real time ticker specific trade ideas, links and commentary from a wide range of investors, traders and financial professionals - as well as official updates from public companies. Check out this Tuesday post on The MSN Blog for more detail.

Knock-off or real? Counterfeit software alert. The Anti-Piracy team at Microsoft launched a global campaign this week to inform small businesses about the risk of counterfeit software creeping into their business when acquiring or downloading software from the Internet. Most business buyers know to avoid questionable street-corner vendors when purchasing software for their business, yet they may not think twice about ordering software from an unfamiliar but professional looking website that offers steep discounts. Want the rest of the story? Read this Wednesday post on The Official Microsoft Blog, and check out the video below.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

That’s it for this edition of Weekend Reading! See you back here next week on The Official Microsoft Blog!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/03/30/weekend-reading-march-30th-edition-the-nokia-lumia-900-is-coming-april-8-three-major-entertainment-apps-are-live-on-xbox-live-plus-bing-skype-and-another-botnet-disrupted.aspx

In this edition of The Midweek Download, we’ve got stories about the impending arrival of Kinect for Windows 1.5, a Windows Phone SDK update, scaling to different screens in Windows 8 and a new Windows Theory Blog. Check ‘em out!

Kinect for Windows 1.5 on its way. Microsoft is hard at work on its Kinect for Windows 1.5 release, which will be available at the end of May. Among the most exciting new capabilities is Kinect Studio, an application that will allow developers to record, playback and debug clips of users engaging with their applications. Also coming is what we call “seated” or “10-joint” skeletal tracking, which provides the capability to track the head, neck and arms of either a seated or standing user. Also included in the 1.5 release will be four new languages for speech recognition – French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. To get the rest of the story, read this Monday post on the Kinect for Windows Blog.

Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 update now available. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 Update is now available for your download. It’s the final version of the CTP we released last month, and enables Windows Phone developers to do two things: develop apps that work well on the new 256 MB devices  and use the WPSDK 7.1 to develop on machines running Windows 8. For the rest of the story, read this Monday post on The Windows Phone Developer Blog. Also announced this week: the App Hub is now open in several new markets.

Launch options for Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8. IE10 is a new browsing experience built in lockstep with Windows 8 to give you all the advantages that Metro style applications offer. We built that experience by extending IE’s underlying architecture to provide a fast, fully hardware accelerated browsing engine with strong security and support for HTML5 and other Web standards. IE10 also includes a desktop experience for when you are using desktop tools and wish to continue using them in your existing workflows. Read this Monday post on the IEBlog for the rest of the story. Also, check out this March 21 IEBlog post on IndexedDB updates for IE10 and Metro style apps.

Making mobile apps and the Web faster. This week begins face to face meetings at the IETF on how to approach HTTP 2.0 and improve the Internet. How the industry moves forward together on the next version of HTTP – how every application and service on the web communicates today – can positively impact user experience, operational and environmental costs, and even the battery life of the devices you carry around. As part of this discussion of HTTP 2.0, Microsoft will submit to the IETF a proposal for “HTTP Speed+Mobility." The approach we propose focuses on all the web’s end users – emphasizing performance improvements and security while at the same time accounting for the important needs of mobile devices and applications. Read this Monday post on the Interoperability @ Microsoft Blog for the whole story.

A more natural future with technology. Individual trends such as big data, the Internet of Things and cloud computing are fascinating on their own – but over the last year it’s become clear to Next at Microsoft Editor Steve Clayton that a number of great ideas in technology are maturing and colliding at the same time and helping to fuel a singular trend we’re focused on – Natural User Interfaces, or NUI. To find out more about what Steve means, read this Tuesday post on Next.

Scaling to different screens in Windows 8. One of the core promises of the Windows platform has been its support for diverse form factors, allowing Windows to power more than a billion PCs in the market today. In Windows 8, we set out to build upon this strength by delivering a great experience regardless of the form factor or screen size. Windows 8 PCs will come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from small tablet screens to laptops and large desktop monitors and multi-monitor setups. They will also scale to different pixel densities; from that of the typical tablet to new high-definition tablets. Read this March 21 post on Building Windows 8 for the rest of the story.

New Theory Blog sets sail. Omer Reingold’s interests focus on computer-science theory. A few months ago, Reingold - a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley - and his lab colleagues were exploring the launching of a blog to test the theory waters. A handful of weeks later, they’re quite happy they did so, given the initial response to Windows on Theory —a name chosen for its Microsoft connection, not because the blog is focused solely on the Windows operating system. “In the next couple of months, I expect we will have posts by at least 10 different editors, and the list is growing,” says Reingold, pictured above. Read this March 21 post on Inside Microsoft Research for the whole story.

Windows Azure Community News Roundup. Check out this March 23 post on the Windows Azure Team Blog for the latest edition of the Windows Azure Community News Roundup.

That’s a wrap for this edition of The Midweek Download. Thanks for reading!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/03/28/the-midweek-download-march-28th-edition-kinect-for-windows-1-5-coming-in-late-may-windows-phone-sdk-gets-an-update-a-new-microsoft-research-blog-plus-windows-8-ie10-amp-windows-azure.aspx

The Anti-Piracy team at Microsoft launched a global campaign this week to inform small businesses about the risk of counterfeit software creeping into their business when acquiring or downloading software from the Internet. Most business buyers know to avoid questionable street-corner vendors when purchasing software for their business, yet they may not think twice about ordering software from an unfamiliar but professional looking website that offers steep discounts.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Counterfeit software lurks around every corner and can find its way into business settings in a number of different ways - auction websites, peer-to-peer networks, online retailers selling illegal software - there are several common paths. And counterfeiters spend a lot of time and energy making illicit software-purchasing sites look and feel like the real thing.

Keep Your Business Safe

In a test of software acquired through common channels, The Harrison Group found in August 2011 that 24 percent of machines that run counterfeit software either became infected at installation or downloaded and installed malicious software upon connection to the Internet.

On the other hand, PCs that run legitimate Windows and Microsoft Office products outperformed pirated copies 75 percent of the time and by an average of 53 percent when doing everyday business tasks. Why? Because genuine software comes with significant protection, including Windows Essentials and access to software updates.

If you run a business, look at it like this: Would you hire a new employee without any sort of interview or screening process? Of course not. So why let your business use critical software that you aren’t sure is genuine, reliable and safe? The consequences to your business can be enormous.

What Business Buyers Can Do

When looking online for the best software deals, remember that counterfeit software is everywhere. However, here are a few simple steps you can take to spot illegitimate software and keep your business safe:

· Shop smart – Know who you’re buying from so you don’t make yourself vulnerable to security breaches that will cost your business in downtime and tech support expenses.

· Visit How To Tell – Microsoft’s How To Tell website provides guidance on how to avoid counterfeit and pirated software. It also lets you report instances of illegal software.

· Support Microsoft Partners – We have an incredible network of Microsoft resellers and service providers that ensure business owners everywhere get the best possible software experience through technical support, Software Asset Management (SAM) implementation, knowledge and expertise to guide the growth of your business. Applications and services can be located through Microsoft Pinpoint.

Posted by Dinis Couto
General Manager, Worldwide Anti-Piracy, Microsoft

Details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/03/28/knock-off-or-real-counterfeit-software-alert.aspx