News

Microsoft planning a “new” music service? Well of course they are.

xbox-globeIn an “exclusive”, CNet’s Greg Sandoval is reporting that CNet has learned that “Microsoft is in talks with some of the major record companies about creating a new music service”.  Sandoval reports that the service would supply music …

Revolving door: Club Bing out, msnNOW in (sorta)

chicktionaryThis week’s episode of “out with the old, in with the new” stars Club Bing, which is being discontinued on May 31st, and something called msnNOW, which was announced this evening.

Club Bing, itself a replacement for Live Search Club, …

Microsoft to end “Calendar in the Hotmail inbox” test

Last June, we noticed a new feature that we were seeing, a sidebar calendar in the Hotmail inbox.  While some of you reported seeing it too, we learned today that it’s going away.  We asked David Dennis, a Principal …

Hotmail: best at fighting spam? (Updated, study commissioned by Microsoft, executed independently)

ms-Hotmail_v_cAccording to a new study by Cascade Insights, as cited by an Inside Windows Live post, Microsoft’s Hotmail narrowly beat out Gmail (and they both significantly out-performed Yahoo! Mail, and an unfiltered web host account) in a test by …

So what is happening with Zune and Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

This morning Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, revealed in his blog post the first official screenshots from Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which gave us a glimpse of the new Office 15 suite and

Massive Windows on ARM post includes video peeks at Office 15, “Live” Metro apps

paintToday in an 8,000+ word epic on Windows on ARM, Steven Sinofsky finally lifted the curtains on some of what we can expect from Windows 8 running on ARM architectures, which he says will be available in the same …

Google reportedly readies GDrive, again (and again, and again)

PLATYPUS-1A report from the Wall St. Journal today has Google readying a launch for its version of Dropbox/SkyDrive/iCloud (although they don’t even mention SkyDrive), called Drive.  The new service, which the WSJ says may be launching “in the coming weeks …

Windows 8 leaps into the future with Feb 29 Consumer Preview launch

previewMicrosoft has sent out invitations today to a special leap year day Consumer Preview Launch in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, and since we’ve been promised a “late February” availability for the not-a-beta, we’re assuming we’ll be able to download …

OneNote for Android released: features SkyDrive integration

onenote-androidMicrosoft continues to fill out its cross platform application offerings, adding OneNote Mobile for Android (2.3 or higher) to the list of iPhone, iPad, and Android apps already available from a number of Microsoft products, including Bing and Hotmail.

The …

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 – and the future of syncing and sharing

If you had been following LiveSide, you might’ve heard about the recent news about Windows Phone 8 from an allegedly leaked video featuring Joe Belfiore, Microsoft Senior Vice President for Windows Phone, speaking about the latest features on Windows Phone …