Tag Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft Research Opens a Lab in New York City

By Guest PostMay 3, 2012Technologybing, christian borgs, cornell technion campus, cryptography, dan goldstein, david pennock, david rothschild, duncan watts, eric horvitz, jake hofman, jennifer chayes, john langford, manhattan, mayor, michael bloomberg, Microsoft, microsoft partner, new england, new york city, research lab, rick rashid, sharad goel, siddharth suri, sociology, tech hub, vowpal wabbit, xbox

New research lab will focus on computational and experimental social science, algorithmic economics, and machine learning, along with information retrieval.

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. (more…)

Software You Can Eat: College Students Build Tool to Feed the Hungry

By Guest PostApril 24, 2012Technologyacer laptop, arizona state university, brigham young university, carnegie mellon university, cloud computing, drexel dragons, drexel university, ecstatic, elated, eric lehnhardt, excited, flashfood, food deserts, game design, hungry, imagine cup, jake irvin, katelyn keberle, kinect, legendairy, mark hindsbo, math dash, Microsoft, mobile, nokia lumia 800, redmond campus, silverlight, software design, steven hernandez, stunned, team dr fishbowl, team flashfood, Technology, us imagine cup, visual studio, windows 8, windows azure award, windows phone, xbox game

A team of Arizona State University Students won the U.S. Imagine Cup’s Software Design category with a program that takes uneaten restaurant and catered event meals and reroutes it to nearby families that would otherwise go without.

REDMOND, Wash. — 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. (more…)

Microsoft, Facebook Announce Patent Agreement

By Guest PostApril 23, 2012Technologyacquisition, antitrust improvements act, aol auction, aol inc, aol patents, aol portfolio, brad smith, Facebook, hart scott rodino, Microsoft, ted ullyot

Companies strike deal to split patents secured by Microsoft from AOL Inc.

REDMOND, Wash. and MENLO PARK, Calif. — April 23, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. and Facebook announced today a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will assign to Facebook the right to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it recently agreed to acquire from AOL Inc. Facebook has agreed to purchase this portion for $550 million in cash.

In the initial AOL auction, Microsoft secured the ability to own or assign approximately 925 U.S. patents and patent applications plus a license to AOL’s remaining patent portfolio, which contains approximately 300 additional patents that were not for sale.As a result of today’s agreement, Facebook will obtain ownership of approximately 650 AOL patents and patent applications, plus a license to the AOL patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own. (more…)

Imagine Cup Turns 10: A Decade of Inspiring Students to Dream Big

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Technologyabhinav aj jambulingam, andrew dicken, annie ryu, australia, brazil, david gonzalez, digital infinity, egypt, evangelism group, final, france, imagine cup, imagine cup 2012, immunization checkup, Japan, jared wong, joy ming, karnataka, mark hindsbo, Microsoft, MIT, new york, nicaragua, pat yongpradit, puzzle, redmond, ronny ortiz, rural housing, silver spring, springbrook high, sydney, tablet pc, team remindavax, text message, tohoku earthquake, tsunami, visual studio 2010, windows phone

Heading into the U.S. national finals, Microsoft’s signature technology competition has reached 1.25 million students worldwide over the past 10 years.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 20, 2012 — Across every industry — from healthcare to transportation and agriculture to infrastructure — the world has a never-ending need for inspired minds to find creative solutions that solve tough challenges. Yet it’s been estimated that 1 million science and engineering jobs will go unfilled in the U.S. alone over the next three to five years.

According to Mark Hindsbo, vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Developer & Platform Evangelism Group, that’s why programs like the Imagine Cup are so important. Encouraging students to develop technology-based solutions for real-world issues, and inspiring them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has been the mission of Microsoft’s signature technology competition for the past decade. Hindsbo has been involved with the competition since its beginnings. Every year, he says, the judges are amazed by the contestants’ projects and enthusiasm. (more…)

Do You Rowi? Windows Phone Twitter App a Big Hit

By Guest PostApril 17, 2012Technologybird, erik porter, hidden pineapple, iPhone, joshua topolsky, Microsoft, nathan heskew, new zealand, ohhh, psych, rowi, rtl, sxsw, sync, tech blogger, the verge, tweets, twitter app, windows phone

Microsoft employees Erik Porter and Nathan Heskew built Rowi, a Twitter app that makes full use of Windows Phone’s social media capabilities. The duo just released version 2, they’re building a Windows 8 app, and Rowi is now among some of the most popular apps in the marketplace.

REDMOND, Wash. – April 17, 2012 – 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. (more…)

Meet the Team Making Windows Phone Faster and More Powerful

By Guest PostApril 16, 2012Technologychocolate, cxe, daniel pravat, florida, kathy davis, long term evolution, lte, mark leiter, Microsoft, microsoft news center, mnc, mobile phone, mountain biking, mountain dew, romania, snowboarding, Technology, wenatchee, windows phone

*Members of the Windows Phone customer experience engineering team talk about their work on new developments in mobile phone technology – and what else excites them.*

REDMOND, Wash. – April 16, 2012 – 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 Lumina 900 and HTC Titan II phones announced last week, LTE-capable.

Not many U.S. cities in the AT&T network currently have LTE service, but Microsoft and its partners are staying ahead of customer demand. That’s what the Windows Phone CXE team is all about: creating leading-edge mobile technology before customers need it, and laying the foundation for new applications and functionality that even they can’t predict. (more…)

Microsoft Announces Largest Cloud Customer Ever: All India Council for Technical Education to Reach 7 Million With Live@edu

By Guest PostApril 12, 2012Technologyaicte, all india council, anthony salcito, cloud computing, Economy, Google, ibm, India, los angeles, Microsoft, microsoft live, microsoft lync online, microsoft office, population, ppp model, s s mantha, sanket akerkar, technical education, web apps

*AICTE adopts cloud to improve technical education and prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow.*

NEW DELHI and REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced today 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.

Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to AICTE’s more than 7 million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users — roughly double the size of the Los Angeles population — making AICTE Microsoft’s largest cloud customer ever. Live@edu is the first step in AICTE’s deployment of Microsoft cloud computing for education. AICTE also plans to deploy Microsoft Office 365 for education when it becomes available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional as the technical infrastructure to support member colleges and institutes. (more…)

Microsoft’s Certifications Reinvented for the Cloud

By Guest PostApril 11, 2012Technologycloud, cushing anderson, don field, evolution, it environment, mcsa, mcsd, mcse, mcse certification, mcsm, Microsoft, microsoft certification, peter de tender, private cloud, program, public cloud, Technology

*New program reflects changes coming to IT jobs.*

REDMOND, Wash. — April 11, 2012— Microsoft today announced that it has reinvented its certification program to directly address technology’s evolution to the cloud.

Organizations are increasingly turning to the cloud to improve productivity, cut costs and fuel business growth. By 2015 IT innovation produced by the cloud could create US$1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues according to a recent IDC study (1). As a result, top of mind for companies today is making sure they have the right skills and people in place to help them fully realize the benefits the cloud has to offer. (more…)