Microsoft has rolled out an update for its My Xbox LIVE application today, bringing the software to version 1.5. The update brings high-resolution images to Retina iPad users, and some cool new features to the iPhone.
The most notable addition is the ability for iPhone owners to use the app to control their Xbox 360 consoles. The functionality will allow them to control on-screen content (play, stop, etc.) right from their handsets...
Whoa, it looks like Apple's brand new in-house Maps solution in iOS 6 sources some content from Microsoft's Bing Maps.
The iPhone maker taps more than a dozen of providers for various mapping data used in iOS 6 Maps.
However, the Redmond giant is not officially included on Apple's list of Maps acknowledgments, even if some of the images used reportedly have Microsoft attribution...
Electronic Entertainment Expo, the industry's biggest interactive entertainment show, is underway in Los Angeles, California and Microsoft juts announced an interesting software solution for wireless media streaming to the Xbox 360 console from devices powered by Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating system.
Called SmartGlass, the app lets you beam video from your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android device to Xbox Live and Windows 8. Another cool feature: with SmartGlass installed, your mobile device becomes a complementary display in games and apps that support this functionality...
News Corp.-owned The Daily reported this morning that Microsoft's development team has apparently locked the code for Office on the iOS platform last month, followed by the design team's approval of the user interface. The long expected office suite is now being tested, with Microsoft internally shooting for an October 10 release date, giving Redmond a five-month lead time to smooth out the rough edges...
Tim Cook shared a pretty interesting data point at yesterday’s D10: All Things Digital conference. He said Apple sold 2.8 million units of the $99 set-top box in 2012 so far, nearly matching sales for the whole of 2011.
Cook argued that 1080p hardware upgrade and greater content availability on iTunes helped drive sales. Microsoft was keen on pointing out that Apple TV numbers pale in comparison to its Xbox 360 console...
One of the inevitable subjects technology columnists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher pressed Apple's Cook on during yesterday's D10: All Things Digital opening-night talk touches upon the post-PC world and the convergence dilemma. As you know, Cook's predecessor Steve Jobs was a huge proponent of tablet computing.
Jobs used to passionately defend the tablet with all his heart and soul, insisting on the post-PC revolution spearheaded by the iPad. So, here's Cook's take on tablets displacing PCs, the iPad, the assumed convergence of tablets and PCs and more...
Seriously, Microsoft has plans to officially sell a whopping 80-inch tablet, their VP has confirmed. This beast of a 'tablet' is powered by Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system and is currently hung on the wall in CEO Steve Ballmer's office.
It's apparently become Ballmer's whiteboard, email and phone replacement and the company plans to market it for office use initially. No word on pricing or availability yet.
I'd sure love to have such a Minority Report-style display adorn my office walls. The closes thing to this outrageous display in the Apple world? That non-TV TV from Apple that Forrester dreamed up yesterday...
Microsoft appears to be devoting a lot of its attention to the iOS platform this summer. Earlier today we heard that the Redmond company was working on bringing its Office suite to Apple's mobile OS. And now this.
AppleInsider is out with a new report this afternoon, claiming that it has learned that Microsoft plans to release native iOS apps for both Outlook, its popular email client, and Lync, its instant messaging client, this fall...
We've been hearing whispers about Office landing on the iPad since the dawn of time. The latest rumor pinpoints release date for November of this year. Interesting enough, Redmond is apparently gearing up to launch Office not only for the iPad, but for the iPhone/iPod touch as well as Android tablets...
In addition to having trouble catching up to Samsung in China, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has now managed to outsell the iPhone in the 1.33 billion people market, if a high-ranked Microsoft executive in charge of the Greater China region is to be believed.
According to his data, Windows Phone market share in China now sits at seven percent, a percentage point ahead of the six percent market share enjoyed by the iPhone.
No reason to get enraged over this metric. Apple's in it for the profits, not market share and Nokia actually has a dominant presence and world-class distribution in this hugely important market. Let's hope Tim Cook's looking into those numbers as Apple needs to double down on China...
Robbie Bach, a former Microsoft executive who led the company’s devices and entertainment division, yesterday shared some surprisingly frank observations on Apple, the iPod business and Apple’s “incredible” execution that, under the guidance of late co-founder Steve Jobs, saw it rise to become the world’s most-valued corporation...
Apple tends to yank apps over duplicate functionality, use of private APIs and those that look and feel very much like stock iOS programs. So it goes without saying I was surprised to learn that the company approved Track 8, a $1.99 music player program by Ender Labs. That Apple greenlighted an app resembling a rival platform's UI rather than flaltly reject it is news in and of itself, you'll admit.
Maybe the company just doesn't care because Windows Phone is failing? Be that as it may, people will wonder if a Metro-style interface makes sense on iOS...