February, 2011

Windows Phone Update #1: not without problems

For the first time, an update for Windows Phone is being gradually pushed out to users beginning today.  The update doesn’t do much except “update the updater”, which apparently needs to happen before the long awaited “NoDo” update arrives in …

Chat with your Facebook friends via Hotmail: now available worldwide

Microsoft announced today that “Facebook chat is available to Hotmail customers worldwide, wherever Facebook is available”.  Hotmail began integrating Facebook chat into Web Messenger last September, but it was only available in 6 regions.  A few weeks ago, Facebook chat …

First (of many!) Windows Phone updates coming today (no it’s not copy/paste)

The first Windows Phone update is going to be pushed out to WP7 users beginning today, according to a blog post on the Windows Phone blog:

Starting today, some of you might see something new on your Windows Phone:

More IE mystery! What’s Dev:unplugged?

The sharp eyes of Robert McLaws have just spotted a new page on IE9’s website www.beautyoftheweb.com: a teaser for something (epic! – oooh!) coming, and soon (at www.beautyoftheweb.com/#/unpluggedteaser)

dev-unplugged

Just checked, and as of this writing there’s nothing on …

Zune HD coming to Canada

Travis Pope, who runs ZuneSpring.com and is a Zune MVP, picked up on an announcement on the Zune Insider podcast from yesterday: Zune HD is coming to Canada.  The podcast, hosted by Matt Akers and Jessica Zahn from Microsoft, …

Internet Explorer 9 holds special press event on March 14 – final build coming soon?

Microsoft just released the Release Candidate (RC) build of their upcoming Internet Explorer 9 on February 10, their official team blog is already gearing up for their next event – a special party to be held during the South by …

Bing Tiles: 45 Content Providers bringing sponsored “tiles” to organic search results, coming soon

Bing is in testing to begin a wider launch for Bing Tiles, which will be interactive icons placed next to “authoritative” links in organic search results.  We first heard about Tiles in a video interview with Bing Director Stefan Weitz …

Free webcast for map developers

imageBing Maps developers will discuss Bing Maps’ latest features and development tips and tricks in a free 40 minute webcast at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, March 1.

The webcast is presented by:

RICKY BRUNDRITT –CEO

New from Bing: sponsored tiles, and what’s “Azure on the Go?”

We just got done watching a “Whiteboard Friday” video segment from SEO software maker SEOmoz, with CEO Rand Fishkin in a lighthearted half hour with Bing Director Stefan Weitz, who start off talking about the paid links problems surrounding …

Bing Bar: Quick first impressions: Can we learn to love a toolbar?

Bing just released their new-version toolbar that they’re calling the Bing Bar, and as usual, even before installing it, as with any toolbar we had an instant negative reaction.  Toolbars, yuck.  They’re slow, they take up valuable real estate, and …