Opinion

Games for Windows Marketplace now on Xbox.com; wild rumors on Xbox and Windows 8 integration, and more

Two weeks ago we reported that Games for Windows Marketplace is slated to be migrated to Xbox.com, potentially being the first step for the convergence of Xbox LIVE across the Xbox 360, Windows Phone, and the Windows PC. Today, …

Facebook, Skype, and video chat: Where does that leave Messenger?

fb skypeToday, Facebook and Skype announced Facebook Video Calling, basically a “mini Skype client” running within Facebook, allowing you to video chat one on one with any of your Facebook friends.  Our friend Rafael Rivera, already digging through the …

Hotmail: It’s fast. Is that enough?

Today over at Inside Windows Live, Dick Craddock walks us through some recent work, just released, on Hotmail, citing some impressive speed improvements.  By modernizing Hotmail to make better use of caching, pre-loading, and asynchronous operations, speed has …

So. Mango is cool… but will it sell?

wp7logo_printSome sort of a flood of Mango hands on reviews released tonight, and everyone from Paul Thurrott to Gizmodo to Ina Fried at All Things D to Tom Warren at WinRumors are gushing over the new update to Windows Phone, …

Opinion: Travis’ Windows Phone OEM Bootcamp

It’s been two weeks since we saw some of the unique features Microsoft has in store for Windows Phone Mango. I have no doubt that we all have watched every video, inspected every image, and kept our ears open for …

Windows Live on Windows Phone “Mango”: The Past, Present, and Future

We’ve all heard about Microsoft’s "3-screens-and-the-cloud" strategy before, delivering cloud services to the "three-screens" – PCs, TV (via the Xbox 360), and of course your mobile phones. Windows Live really sits right in the centre of this strategy, …

Opinions: How Microsoft Made A Cloud Believer Out of Me

by Travis Pope, Zune MVP

For three years I’ve listened to tech luminary Paul Thurrott on his Windows Weekly Podcast tell us about the future of computing and cloud integration. I laughed at his repeated attempts to convince the wider …

Microsoft to announce Skype deal: “What does it mean?”

double-rainbow-guyAccording to numerous sources, Microsoft is set to announce a $7 $8 8.5 billion dollar deal to acquire Skype, as soon as early Tuesday morning (apparently a press release is forthcoming at 5am PDT).  Even for a company that loses …

The Windows Phone PR debacle: will Microsoft ever learn?

neroThere have been a number of incremental news stories regarding the Windows Phone NoDo update since we last posted on the subject – unfortunately none of them are either good or even have much to do with the update itself.  …

#F@*%BING: Why the Bing tweet was so bad

This morning, someone from the Bing PR team, in an effort to join in the efforts to help the victims of the recent Japan earthquake and tsunami, learned what happens when your PR efforts for a multi-billion dollar enterprise are …