Tag Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2012 Winners, Ukrainian Team Takes Top Place

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2012TechnologyGermany, greenway, imagine cup 2012, imagine cup grants, Japan, maxim osika, Microsoft, microsoft bizspark, moorthy uppaluri, oman, quadsquad, sydney, team coccolo, team drexel dragons, team grawesome, team quadsquad, team tang thai, Thailand, ukrainian team, united states, windows, xbox

Student winners from across the globe, including United States and Thailand, are honored at the 10th anniversary of the Imagine Cup.

SYDNEY — July 10, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. announced the winners of the 10th annual Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, honoring student technology innovations that address the world’s toughest problems. The winning Software Design project developed by Ukrainian Team quadSquad allows deaf individuals to communicate verbally using custom-designed sensory gloves and a smartphone application to translate sign language gestures into speech. Games focused on the environment from Thailand team TANG Thai and math education from U.S. team Drexel Dragons won the two Game Design competitions.

The Imagine Cup 2012 competition winners were announced tonight at the Imagine Cup World Festival and Awards Ceremony at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, in front of 106 student teams. The event was the culmination of a five-day celebration of technology, teamwork and innovation. (more…)

World’s Top Tech Students Go for It All Down Under

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2012Technology2012 summer games, Argentina, australia, blog entry, brazilian brothers, bubblegum, cloud computing, darkened room, eduardo, eureka, gold medals, Greece, Iceland, imagine cup 2012, kinect fun labs, korea, let it bee, london, mathdash, Microsoft, olympic athletes, Pizza, project, robert miles, roberto sonnino, roberts quest, serbia, sydney, team, team boddymusic, team catchcake, team drexel dragons, team radiant, team symbiosis, Technology, united states, walid abu-hadba, windows, worldwide finals, xbox, xbox 360

Young technologists are looking to take the world by storm this weekend at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia.

SYDNEY – Wrapped in the flags of their countries, the competitors climb onto the podium, beaming with joy as the cameras flash. They are young, passionate, business-savvy ambassadors of their field.

These aren’t soccer players or high jumpers, but they are no less competitors than the athletes seeking gold medals at the 2012 Summer Games in London. They are the planet’s premiere young technologists. And, to slightly alter an infamous movie line, they’ve come to change the world and chew bubblegum – and they’re all out of bubblegum. (more…)

Microsoft to Acquire Yammer

By Guest PostJune 25, 2012Technologyacquire, corporate user, david sacks, fortune 500, kurt delbene, Microsoft, microsoft dynamics, microsoft sharepoint, office 365, skype, steve ballmer, success manager, yammer

Microsoft extends cloud services with best-in-class enterprise social networking.

REDMOND, Wash., and SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. and Yammer Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Yammer, a leading provider of enterprise social networks, for $1.2 billion in cash. Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division, led by division President Kurt DelBene, and the team will continue to report to current CEO David Sacks.

“The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.” (more…)

Microsoft Announces Surface: New Family of PCs for Windows

By Guest PostJune 18, 2012Technologyarm processor, aspect ratio, hollywood, human computer interface, Microsoft, microsoft stores, oems, pc, surface, usb port, vapormg, windows, windows 8, windows rt

Microsoft-made hardware to be available starting with release of Windows 8 and Windows RT.

LOS ANGELES — June 18, 2012 — Today at an event in Hollywood, Microsoft unveiled Surface: PCs built to be the ultimate stage for Windows. Company executives showed two Windows tablets and accessories that feature significant advances in industrial design and attention to detail. Surface is designed to seamlessly transition between consumption and creation, without compromise. It delivers the power of amazing software with Windows and the feel of premium hardware in one exciting experience.

Advances in Industrial Design

Conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees, and building on the company’s 30-year history manufacturing hardware, Surface represents a unique vision for the seamless expression of entertainment and creativity. Extensive investment in industrial design and real user experience includes the following highlights: (more…)

Pottermore, New Website Based on the Hugely Popular Harry Potter Books, Uses Windows Azure to Scale Up to 1 Billion Page Views in First Two Weeks

By Guest PostJune 6, 2012Technologyazure, brittany talbot, cloud environment, elastic solution, elasticity, Facebook, fran dougherty, harry potter, harry potter fan, j k rowling, julian thomas, Microsoft, paas, pottermore, pottermore website, priscilla, san francisco, Technology, website, windows azure

Windows Azure offered Pottermore the flexibility required to build a massively scalable website in just three months.

REDMOND, Wash. – June 6, 2012 – Eagerly awaiting the launch of Pottermore (www.pottermore.com), the website based on the popular Harry Potter stories, Brittany Talbot and her sister, Priscilla, raced to sign up when the site went live on April 14, 2012.

They weren’t alone. Within hours, thousands of Harry Potter fans were flooding the site and just two weeks after the Pottermore website went live, it received one billion page views, making it one of the most popular sites on the Web. To date, 10 million unique visitors have visited the site, with 25,000 new users signing up every day.

With Harry Potter one of the largest entertainment phenomena of all time, fans of all ages couldn’t wait to experience the world-famous stories, social, and interactive experiences the site offered. “I like being able to go up there and do potions and spells, and walk around where Harry was,” Brittany says. “I read the first book in the first week because I was so excited.” (more…)

Microsoft Marks E3 with “Halo 4,” New Entertainment Experiences

By Guest PostJune 4, 2012Technologye3, electronic entertainment expo, Entertainment, fable, forza, game of thrones, gears of war, halo, halo 4, los angeles, master chief, Microsoft, south park, splinter cell, windows 8 pc, xbox 360, xbox live, xbox music, xbox smartglass, yusuf mehdi

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced a robust lineup of new Xbox 360 games, including a new installment of the blockbuster Halo franchise. The company also unveiled new content and entertainment experiences for Xbox LIVE and smart devices.

LOS ANGELES – The Xbox 360 console charged into its seventh Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) today buoyed by a bundle of blockbuster game releases led by Halo 4 and a set of new entertainment experiences that will push Xbox farther into the living room, and onto PCs, tablets and phones.

Microsoft also revealed a set of new Xbox content, partners and apps – including bringing Internet Explorer to the console for the first time. The company also introduced a new music service and Xbox SmartGlass, a new app that brings an immersive entertainment experience to all devices. (more…)

New Bing, Available Today, Takes You from Searching to Doing

By Guest PostJune 1, 2012Technologyatlanta, bing, bing summer, Chicago, cody simpson, days of doing, doing, dosomething, exchange ideas, Facebook, heart, hola, impulse research, lafayette park, los angeles, Microsoft, msft, nasdaq, new york, pizza party, recreation center, searching, social network, the hunt, Twitter, web

In celebration of new search experience, Bing launches the Bing Summer of Doing with DoSomething.org.

REDMOND, Wash. — June 1, 2012 — Do you ever feel like you’re spending too much time searching and not enough time doing? If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey conducted by Bing and Impulse Research, nearly 75 percent of people spend more time than they would like searching for information online. Time wasted searching is a thing of the past with the new Bing design, which brings together information from the Web, experts and enthusiasts, and your friends to help you do more — available today at https://www.bing.com.

Only Bing brings together the best search with people from social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. In celebration of this new search experience, Bing is joining forces with DoSomething.org to launch the Bing Summer of Doing, designed to inspire people to do amazing things, including giving back to their communities. (more…)

EU5 Map Usage via Smartphone Growing 7x Faster Than Classic Web

By Guest PostMay 31, 2012Technologybenchmarks, Comscore, eu5, european markets, france, Germany, google android, google maps, hesham al jehani, italy, maps, Microsoft, mobile, mobile phone, mobilens data, smartphone users, spain, united kingdom, viamichelin

UK Has Highest Penetration of Smartphone Map Users in EU5

LONDON, UK, 31 May 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of mobile and computer usage of Maps across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) using the comScore MobiLens and comScore MMX services. The study showed that 35.0 percent of smartphone users in EU5 reported accessing maps via their device in March 2012, compared to 49.6 percent of the internet audience accessing Maps sites on their computers. Across EU5 markets, the smartphone Map audience increased 55 percent over the past year while map access via computer grew just 8 percent.

“Smartphones are quickly becoming the primary platform for on-the-go services such as maps and navigation. With apps such as Google Maps coming pre-installed on many phones it’s becoming second nature for many of us to rely on the smart device in our pocket to show us the way. The days of checking routes in advance and printing maps to take with us will soon be in our rear view mirror,” said Hesham Al-Jehani, European mobile product manager at comScore. (more…)