Archive for February, 2008
The Zune A Day Giveaway contest by Microsoft
Microsoft has announced a new contest where they will be giving away an 8GB Zune everyday until March 31, 2008. Entry is free, but will require you to log in using your mobile phone and send an email (or receive a text) using your Windows Live account. Overall it sounds pretty simple:
You could win a Zune every day until March 31, 2008 here’s how:
- 1.Select “Hotmail” on your mobile phone menu, Or
- To make it even easier, click here and enter your mobile number — we’ll send you a text with the link.*
- 2.Sign in to Hotmail with your existing Passport or Windows Live ID.
- 3.Send an e-mail to WINAZUNE@live.com with “Go Zune” in the subject line.
Here is the contest page
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iPod shuffle Now Just $49 and New 2GB Model Priced at $69
Apple® today announced that its iPod® shuffle, the world’s most wearable music player, is now even more affordably priced at $49 and that it is introducing a new 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for $69. The popular iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce, features an aluminum design with a built-in clip and comes in five colors—silver, blue, green, purple and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition.
“At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle.”
The iPod is the world’s most popular family of digital music players with over 140 million sold. The lineup includes iPod shuffle, the world’s most wearable iPod; iPod classic holding up to 40,000 songs*; the incredible iPod nano with video playback and the breakthrough iPod touch with a revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPod owners can choose from a vast ecosystem of accessories with over 4,000 products made specifically for the iPod including cases, fitness accessories, speaker systems and iPod connectivity in over 75 percent of US automobiles.
Source- Apple Press release
DreamSpark: Free Microsoft software offered to all students globally
DreamSpark is a new program that launched today (Feb 18th) with Bill Gates giving the keynote. If you’re a student you can get
- Windows Server 2003
- Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
- Microsoft Expression Studio including Expression Web, Blend, Design and Media
- A one year subscription to XNA Game Studio Creator’s club
DreamSpark is simple, it’s all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.
Here is what the Microsoft press release reads-
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates today will unveil a software giveaway that will ultimately provide millions of college and high school students around the world with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools at no charge to unlock their creative potential and set them on the path to academic and career success.
The Microsoft DreamSpark student program (http://channel8.msdn.com) makes available, at no charge, a broad range of development and design software for download. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Broad global coverage, as well as an expansion of the program to high school students around the world, potentially reaching up to 1 billion students worldwide, will continue throughout the next year. Gates will share details with students and faculty at Stanford University as part of a U.S. and Canada college tour that kicks off today.
For full information, check out https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/ and watch Max Zuckerman’s interview with Bill Gates
Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen
The post published by us about the Blue Ray on XBOX 360 was nothing but just the rumors. Chris Lanier in his blog post have pointed out some of the serious issues which strongly disagrees with the addition of Blue Ray to Xbox.Here is what it reads-
Jason Unger of CE Pro does have the basic rundown of the issue, but don’t believe that Blu-ray is on the way to the Xbox 360.
Among the reasons behind these are the issues which are strongly against addition of Blue Ray to Xbox 360.
Quickly…
- Blu-ray support means adding a Java-based BD-J interactivity layer to the Xbox 360. Highly doubtful to ever happen
- The video/audio codecs are not really in question here, both HD DVD and Blu-ray use the same basic codecs.
- Blu-ray has extra DRM in BD+. The Xbox 360 can already do AACS, but they are not going to add BD+ support. Microsoft has been opposed to it from the start.
Blu-ray Xbox 360 Planned By Microsoft
Rumours were circulating today that Microsoft is set to dump HD DVD and bring out a Blu ray Xbox 360 by as early as May 2008. The move will allow the Company to go head to head with the Sony PS3 gaming console which has been credited with being one of the main reasons that retailers have preferred Blu-ray over Toshiba’s HD DVD.
Insiders at Microsoft in the USA have told SmartHouse that Microsoft has already configured a standalone Blu-ray player that can be connected into an Xbox 360 and that subject to internal marketing and sales approvals the model could be on sale within 3 months.
The Company has also been working on a built in Blu-ray player however insiders are claiming that Microsoft see the HD format battle moving online with consumers offered 1080p movie and content files as a download as opposed to having to buy a HD DVD or Blu-ray disc.
Both Intel and Microsoft have been supporters of the HD DVD format that is set to be killed off this week.
Source- SmartHouse
Intel’s Next-Gen Laptop Platform to be Named Centrino 2
Intel’s next-generation notebook platform codenamed “Montevina” will be called “Centrino 2“, DigiTimes reports according to sources at laptop manufacturers.
The chip maker has used the Centrino brand name for four generations of its notebook platforms including “Carmel”, “Sonoma”, “Napa”, and current “Santa Rosa” and “Santa Rosa Refresh”. This unchanging brand name has left consumers unable to identify the differences between laptop platforms reportedly. The new marketing strategy should give consumers the feeling of a tangible upgrade and will hopefully spur replacement demand, according to the report.
The upcoming Intel Centrino 2 “Montevina” platform will use the new 45-nanometer “Penryn” processors and has a 1066MHz front side bus, which is up from current 800MHz.
DigiTimes says that the new platform will be launched in June this year at Computex show in Taipei.
Source- Digitimes
Yahoo! in negotiations with AOL
AOL and Yahoo! are said to have held talks as the search engine considers potential deals to help it evade the clutches of Microsoft.
Advisers from Time Warner-owned AOL met with representatives of search engine Yahoo! to see if a deal is workable, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The talks with Internet firm AOL come after Yahoo!’s rejection last week of Microsoft’s offer to buy the company for 42 billion US dollars (£21.4bn).
Among the other suitors for Yahoo!, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is thought to have offered to buy a 20% stake in Yahoo! in a deal that would see Yahoo! swap shares for a clutch of online assets, including social networking site MySpace. Mr Murdoch has ruled out making a full bid.
Details of the discussions involving AOL and Yahoo! remain unclear, although a potential sticking point could be Google’s small stake in AOL. Anti-trust laws would make any deal involving Google and either AOL or NewsCorp difficult, the newspaper report said.
Microsoft’s approach came a year after the two companies held talks over a possible tie-up to challenge Google, although Yahoo! rejected the proposals at the time because it hoped to reap benefits from an overhaul of the business.
But Microsoft warned on unveiling its offer that the competitive situation had not improved and that it believed a merger was the "only alternative" to challenging Google’s dominance.
The software giant wants to offer a credible alternative to Google through the tie-up, offering greater choice to advertisers, increasing research and development spending and stripping out overhead costs.
It has also hinted at a hostile bid by reserving the right "to pursue all necessary steps" to win over the firm’s shareholders if the deal is opposed.
Source: http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=7558766
Now, Rupert Murdoch eyes Yahoo!
According to the the media reports published in The Tribune Media baron Rupert Murdoch is reportedly in talks with Internet major Yahoo! to merge with his MySpace online social networking site. Murdoch’s audacious move is aimed at derailing Microsoft’s attempt to buy the Yahoo, says The Telegraph.
The two sides are also in discussions about merging Yahoo with News Corporation’s other online properties. Under the deal being proposed, News Corporation would get a stake of more than 20 per cent in Yahoo.
News Corporation and an unnamed private equity firm would also inject cash into the deal. The two companies have been in talks several times over the past 18 months, and should the combination work, it would help Yahoo fend off Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid for over $ 44.6 billion.
