Tag Archives: windows phone

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

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…)

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Do You Rowi? Windows Phone Twitter App a Big Hit

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…)

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Meet the Team Making Windows Phone Faster and More Powerful

*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…)

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Release of New 4G Phones a Milestone for Windows Phone, Nokia Partnership

*AT&T today launched two new 4G LTE-capable Windows Phones – the sleek, award-winning Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II. The launch is an important milestone for partners Microsoft and Nokia, and an AT&T spokesman said the Lumia 900 will be a centerpiece of its spring advertising campaign.*

REDMOND, Wash. – April 9, 2012 – AT&T today launched two new devices, the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II, the first Windows Phones available on the mobile operator’s speedy 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network.

The launch is a milestone for Microsoft and partner Nokia, and also for AT&T, which is giving the award-winning Lumia 900 top billing as one of the centerpieces of its spring retail and marketing campaign. (more…)

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Will the Next Bill Gates Please Step Up: Young Entrepreneurs Meet Microsoft’s Founder

*Students from around the world talked with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Executive Vice President Brad Smith on Friday about removing obstacles that keep young people from starting their own businesses and nonprofits.*

Davos, Switzerland — Jan. 30, 2012 — When the world’s policymakers descend on Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Bill Gates can usually get their attention.

This year, in between discussing food sustainability and announcing a US$750 million donation to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, Gates turned his attention to a few students who hope to make a similarly outsized humanitarian mark on the world. (more…)

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Meet the Team Behind Windows Phone’s Breakthrough Design

*Four members of the Windows Phone Shell Team talk to the Microsoft News Center about their work designing the Windows Phone user interface as well as life inside and outside Microsoft.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Dec. 15, 2011 – It’s not every day that a person gets to create the user interface for a mobile phone that will be used by millions of people around the world. But that is exactly the work of a small group of engineers at Microsoft.

For the past several years, the Windows Phone Shell Team has been continually improving the user interface for Windows Phones with the goal of making them incredibly intuitive and engaging to use. The team recently completed work on Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango,” the largest and most feature-rich software refresh of Microsoft’s mobile operating system to date. (more…)

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Eleven for ’11 – My Favorite Moments of 2011

*By Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications*

Every year at this time there’s a glut of “year in review” and “best of” lists that come out. Last night I was reading the Rolling Stone “best songs/albums/movies” issue, and was gratified to note that some albums/artists/movies I saw and liked made the list. I feel relevant. 🙂

Of course, there also tends to be year in review lists about the tech industry as well. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don’t! This year, I thought I’d try my hand, and publish my own “Microsoft year in review” thoughts, and a slide show list of my favorite Microsoft moments of 2011. I was having trouble narrowing my slideshow down to a top-ten list, so on the advice of my old friend Nigel Tufnel, my slide show goes to 11. (more…)

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IN FOCUS: Samsung

*Tap, Flick, Slide or Swipe: Samsung Advances Personal Computing Experiences With Just a Touch*

REDMOND, Wash. — Natural User Interfaces (NUI), such as touch, have been in development for years, but only recently have become a mainstream reality. Touch user interfaces have made computing more interactive, easier to use and more pervasive than ever, whether on a laptop, all-in-one PC or mobile phone.

In fact, over the past few years, the ability to control mobile phones, for example, with spot-on voice recognition or with simple touch gestures has redefined an industry. (more…)

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