“You don’t need to invent anything, you just have to do traditional research where you look at history and then compliment that with scientific research where you’re trying to do something new. That can lead to a lot in the business and technology sectors these days” – Bill Buxton
A chat with Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton, Part I
The "stolen" pictures of a supposed PS3 Slim have been seen all around the world, you’ve seen them on Ultimate PS3. After we received threats following the publication of these pics, our staff has investigated and reveals the trickery. Read all the details in this exclusive news, as we’ve interviewed one of the creators of this fake PS3 Slim…
What’s Bing? Here’s an explanation from the Bing’s Team from Microsoft:
You probably didn’t wake up today expecting an entirely new search experience.
But — Bing! — here it is.
So, why a new search engine? Why the new name? Why now?
Well, because even though search is a pretty amazing thing, the current state of search engines has some equally amazing statistics.
So far in 2009, there are four and a half websites created EVERY SECOND as the web continues to expand. While more searchable information is cool, nearly half of all searches don’t result in the answer that people are seeking.
At the same time, the way the world searches is changing. You want more than just information. You want knowledge that leads to action.
The truth is you’ve evolved. It’s time search caught up.
So we had an idea. Start over. And we did.
We took a new approach to go beyond search to build what we call a decision engine. With a powerful set of intuitive tools on top of a world class search service, Bing will help you make smarter, faster decisions. We included features that deliver the best results, presented in a more organized way to simplify key tasks and help you make important decisions faster.
And features like cashback, where we actually give you money back on great products, and Price Predictor, which actually tells you when to buy an airline ticket in order to help get you the best price — help you make smarter decisions, and put money back in your pocket.
We sincerely hope that the next time you need to make an important decision, you’ll Bing and decide.
Bing’s Home Page >>>
Google’s big reveal at I/O? Meet Wave, the Next Big Thing from the Lars and Yen Rasmussen, makers of Google Maps. It’s a very early build, meaning we won’t see it anytime soon, but here’s the gist: a "wave" is a chat session that enables you to send messages live, with each word being transmitted live — no more "person X is typing" messages (don’t worry, that can be deactivated momentarily / permanently with a "draft" button). You can also add others to the wave, drag and drop images for instant transfers, and share documents for on-the-fly edits (with all the participants working simultaneously, mind you), and get this… it does real time translation. So hot, and the crowd is in an uproar over this. The "waves" can be played back to see the conversation evolve / documents edited dynamically. We just got confirmation that it’ll be coming to Android and iPhone, also, but they have yet to get the mobile platform to do the live updating. As they keep telling us, this HTML5-based platform is still in a very early stage, but all attendees will be getting an invite to a sandbox build later today. It’s an open protocol, so expect other devs to add their own toys to the mix. Hit up the gallery for more pics.
Via Engadget
There’s been a lot of press about how there isn’t a an upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. In this video, Jeremy walked me through using the latest beta of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, specifically the User State Migration Tool, to transfer the user settings and files from a Windows XP installation to a new install of Windows 7 on the same PC.
Video >>>
One of the really cool features in this new version is hardlink migration. In the past, if you wanted to back up all of a users files and settings, those had to be transferred to a different drive, and the new OS install would wipe the machine, complete the new install, and then you’d transfer the files back. With hardlink migration, all the files stay in place on the machine, and the Win7 install just updates file locations with hardlinks. This means the install and settings transfer happens much faster, because the files aren’t transferred at all, just the paths to them are updated. It’s really cool, and means you can have a fresh install of Win7, with all your XP files and settings, completed in as few as 30 minutes.
The new Microsoft Deployment Toolkit beta can be found on http://connect.microsoft.com
Chrome 2.0 isn’t that different from Chrome 1.0, despite what its bold new version number might imply. It is, however, a healthy upgrade: rendering speed is up a full 25-35%, stability is improved, true full-screen has been enabled, and the smart New Tab Page and autofill functions have been revamped. Mac and Linux users, however, are still on their own. [Google via Lifehacker and Gizmodo]
These leaked photos of the ZuneX (ZX-1000) may or may not be Microsoft’s handheld device that combines the Zune with the Xbox. But we do have specs. And it may be a phone.
Mimbee.tv’s got a grainy shot from a conference that may or may not be real, a shot of a guy holding a ZuneX in his hand that looks more photoshopped than not, and a list of specs:
• 4-inch display at 640×363 resolution
• Custom Intel LV Atom DualCore 733MHz processor
• Custom Nvidia BLowFish chipset
• 128MB RAM
• 40 hour music, 14 hours of video, 9 hours of gaming and 6 hours of gaming with the wireless on
• 4 analog buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, an analog stick attachment
• 32GB flash storage
• Support for Bluetooth headphones
• SIM Card tray (it’s a phone! Maybe!)
• Xbox Live Arcade Games
• ZuneX Originals
• OnLive Ready game streaming (now we’re just getting a little ridiculous)
• WMV, H.264, MPEG-4 and DivX support
It’s still solidly in rumor territory and will probably stay that way until at least E3. If we had to judge from the specs, it’s slightly too good to be true. As if someone NOT working at Microsoft wrote up their dream specs for a handheld. [Mimbee via Lusogamer via TeamXbox via Gizmodo]
SPOnG: "Over the weekend we received a politely threatening email from a firm of Taiwan-based lawyers asking us to remove the story entitled ‘New Slim PlayStation 3 Pix Torn Down’, which we we ran on May 14th.
Not only were we asked to remove the entire web page in question – which included comment from analysts on the potential for a new, slim, PS3 – we were also asked to keep the request from the lawyers, acting on behalf of an unnamed client, hushed up.
We’re comfortable enough removing images from the story as they could have been obtained illegally. We are not, however, going to be gagged in our reporting of threats made against us on behalf of an unnamed company via its lawyers."
via N4G
Here’s the video:
Tags: PS3Slim, Funstation, PS3 fake
Twitter is out of this world — literally. U.S. astronaut Mike Massimino has just sent the first Twitter message from space.
While training for his upcoming mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, astronaut Mike Massimino (@Astro_Mike) began using Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, to update his followers on his progress.
if you’ve been following the news, you know Massimino and six others blasted off on Monday in the space shuttle Atlantis and have begun their mission, which includes a daring spacewalk.
Massimino “tweeted” the following message upon arrival: “Launch was awesome!!,” followed by “I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”
He’s also sent a few more messages since then, which you can also read here.
His latest tweet from orbit: “Getting more accustomed to living in space today and getting ready for our big rendezvous with hubble.”
If you’re wondering how this is at all possible — because there is no cell phone reception in space, of course – messages are first transmitted to Mission Control at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and NASA then handles the rest.
Via Sympatico.msn.ca
Tags: Twitterfrom space, massimino, hubble
Microsoft originally promised that Windows 7 would be released within three years of Vista—which would put the release date in January 2010—but now the folks at Redmond have confirmed that Windows 7 (and Server 2008 R2) will officially be ready for the 2009 holiday season. We’d already heard plenty of rumors regarding the Windows 7 release date, and while almost everyone was positive that the shiny new operating system would be available in 2009, this is the first confirmation from Microsoft. [Ars Technica]
Via LifeHacker
