Category Archives: Technology

12 Milestone Microsoft Moments of 2012

As 2012 winds down, here’s a video and slideshow highlighting how Microsoft has built its devices and services foundation for the year ahead.

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 13, 2012 — If our online searches reveal anything about us, then Bing’s top searches of 2012 show it’s been a pretty epic year. Take a look at what made the list and you’ll be reminded what a momentous 12 months it has been. We’ve cast our ballots in the presidential election. We’ve rallied together against Hurricane Sandy. And we’ve shared two weeks of inspiration with the world during the London Olympics.

There’s no question that it’s been a momentous year at Microsoft. The company introduced the world to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, announced its family of Surface PCs, showcased a new version of Microsoft Office and released “Halo 4,” keeping up a steady rhythm of advancements across its most popular products for individuals and businesses throughout the year. (more…)

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Microsoft and EINS Sign Android Patent Agreement

Agreement covers EINS Cat tablets running the Android platform

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 11, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. and EINS SE signed a patent licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for EINS devices running the Android platform. EINS manufactures Android tablets under the Cat brand in Germany. While the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from EINS SE. (more…)

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Made in IBM Labs: IBM Lights Up Silicon Chips to Tackle Big Data

• From the Lab to the Fab: Technology Breakthrough Demonstrates Feasibility of Silicon Nanophotonics for Chip Manufacturing
• Light Pulses Can Move Data at Blazing Speeds to Help Solve Bandwidth Limitations of Servers, Datacenters and Supercomputers
• After More Than a Decade of Research, Silicon Nanophotonics is Ready for Development of Commercial Applications

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – 10 Dec 2012: IBM announced today a major advance in the ability to use light instead of electrical signals to transmit information for future computing. The breakthrough technology – called “silicon nanophotonics” – allows the integration of different optical components side-by-side with electrical circuits on a single silicon chip using, for the first time, sub-100nm semiconductor technology.

Silicon nanophotonics takes advantage of pulses of light for communication and provides a super highway for large volumes of data to move at rapid speeds between computer chips in servers, large datacenters, and supercomputers, thus alleviating the limitations of congested data traffic and high-cost traditional interconnects. (more…)

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IBM Expands the Power of Social Business with New Cloud, Mobile Advances

University of Texas at El Paso taps cloud-based, business-grade social networking to help academics collaborate

ARMONK, N.Y. – 06 Dec 2012: IBM today announced new social business software to help enterprise clients collaborate easily and securely in the cloud using the broadest range of mobile devices. The new IBM SmartCloud services include new social networking features and the release of IBM SmartCloud Docs, a cloud-based office productivity suite, which allows users to simultaneously collaborate on word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents to improve productivity. (more…)

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MobileBits Makes It Easy to Deploy Games on Multiple Devices and Platforms

Microsoft BizSpark One startup streamlines mobile game development while removing barriers for multiplayer games.

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 6, 2012 — Multiplayer games thrive when as many gamers as possible can participate. The longtime friends and game developers who founded German-based MobileBits were determined to make it easier for mobile game enthusiasts to immerse themselves in virtual worlds and compete with players globally, without worrying about compatibility issues.

Today, the burgeoning array of device types, versions and platforms in the mobile game market forces developers to create different iterations of their games for laptops, tablets and smartphones running on various operating systems. (more…)

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Student Startup Aims to Prevent Traffic Jams

Winners of the second annual Imagine Cup Grants program, part of Microsoft’s YouthSpark initiative, include student startups aiming to eliminate traffic jams and bring cheap, effective ways to diagnose childhood pneumonia.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Dec. 4, 2012 — Traffic jams typically produce little more than frustration, profanity, and CO2. Four years ago, though, they happened to give Christian Brüggeman an idea.

He was sitting in a London Starbucks with a friend and fellow computer science student. As they chatted, they noticed that one street outside was choked with cars while another was practically empty.

They wondered why drivers weren’t taking advantage of every possible route. If cars could be directed along less-congested roads, wouldn’t that prevent back-ups before they began? (more…)

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New Study on Physician Online Behaviors Shows Health Care Professional Sites Reach 4 out of 5 Physicians, While Electronic Medical Records Show Highest Engagement

More Than Half of Physicians Show Interest in Using Mobile Devices and Tablets at Work

RESTON, VA, December 3, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released new findings from a study based on data generated by the comScore/Symphony Health Care Professional (HCP) Measurement Solutions offering, which provides insight into the actual online behavior of physicians with regard to health-related categories, and the Physician Mobile Survey, a survey of physicians’ attitudes toward mobile devices and tablets in the workplace. Based on a longitudinal study of a permission-based panel of 1,000 U.S. physicians, the study showed that HCP Content websites such as Medscape.com, which provide content or services catering specifically to physicians, reached the highest percentage of physicians (81 percent) in comparison to other types of health sites. However, Electronic Medical Records sites such as Allscripts.com showed higher engagement as physicians have begun to use these sites to replace paper record-keeping. The study also revealed that although computers are still the most often used device to go online at work by physicians, more than half of physicians expressed interest in using mobile phones and tablets in the workplace. (more…)

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