مطالب برچسب شده ‘Microsoft’

مایکروسافت، کامپیوتر سه بعدی شگفت‌انگیزی را به نمایش درآورد.

مایکروسافت، کامپیوتر سه بعدی شگفت‌انگیزی را به نمایش درآورد

اگر نگاهی به دنیای ابزارهای موبایل از تبلت و تلفن‌های هوشمند مجهز به صفحه چندلمسی تا دستیارهای صوتی مجازی که دستورات شما را گوش کرده و به آنها عمل می‌کنند، بیاندازید، متوجه می‌شوید که رابط کاربری ابزارهای مختلف به سرعت در حال تغییر است. اما دنیای کامپیوترهای رومیزی داستان متفاوتی دارد. هرچند نمایشگرها به فناوری سه‌بعدی مجهز شده‌اند ولی رابط کاربری کامپیوترهای رومیزی تغییری نکرده است. حال مایکروسافت کامپیوتر رومیزی سه‌بعدی را خلق کرده که تماشای ویدیو مربوط به رابط کاربری آن شما را شگفت زده خواهد کرد.

هرچند فناوری سه‌بعدی رو به تکامل است و امروزه نمایشگرهای سه‌بعدی بدون نیاز به عینک نیز وارد بازار شده‌اند اما هنوز رابط‌ کاربری کامپیوترهای رومیزی دوبعدی است. در همین راستا لابراتور تحقیقاتی مایکروسافت یک کامپیوتر شفاف سه بعدی را خلق کرده که کاربر می تواند دستان خود را از میان صفحه نمایشگر عبور داده و موارد و اشیاء نمایش داده شده در فضای خالی نمایشگر را بصورت مجازی لمس کرده و حرکت دهد. کاربر می‌تواند به جستجوی مورد خاصی بپردازد و یا ترکیب و چیدمان پنجره‌ها برروی صفحه را با حرکت دست خود تغییر دهد.

در واقع رابط کاربری این کامپیوتر برخلاف تبلت و تلفن‌های هوشمند لمسی بیشتر از اینکه برپایه لمس صفحه باشه، تعاملی است. در واقع طرح جدید کامپیوتر رومیزی سه‌بعدی مایکروسافت ترکیبی از فناوری OLED سامسونگ و کنترلر حرکتی Kinect است. یک دوربین نیز حرکت سر کاربر را تشخیص داده و تصاویر سه بعدی را براساس موقعیت انسان نسبت به نمایشگر تغییر و به نمایش در می‌آورد.

Microsoft is trimming prices of the enterprise and academic SKUs of Office 365 effective immediately.

Microsoft is cutting the prices of a number of its Office 365 enterprise and academic bundles, company officials announced on March 14.

The company is lowering, effective immediately, “most” of its Office 365 for enterprise plans by 20 percent, according to an Office 365 blog post. The changes are available for both new and renewing direct customers.

Here’s a chart (courtesy of Microsoft partner Collabra Networks) that spells out the new pricing in a nice, understandable format. It looks like some prices were cut more than 20 percent; others were slightly less than 20 percent, based on this information:

Microsoft chops Office 365 enterprise prices by 20 percent

Microsoft officials are attributing the cuts to economies of scale and skills among its datacenters, developers and support personnel.

On the academic front, Microsoft also is cutting the price of its “A2″ service plan for faculty and staff. A2 — which bundles the core Exchange SharePoint, Lync and Office Web Apps — already is free for students. Microsoft plans to launch the “full” Office 365 for education service starting this summer, officials reiterated today.

Microsoft rolled out Office 365 in late June 2011. At that time, Microsoft announced a number of different plans at different price points. The core Office 365 offering includes Microsoft-hosted Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, supplemented by Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (known together as Office Web Apps). Office 365 E3 and E4 plan customers get local copies of Office 2010 Professional Plus included as part of their subscription fees. Other users have the option of adding subscriptions for Office 2010 Professional Plus to their plans.

After today’s cuts, the new prices on Office 365’s enterprise plans are:

E1: $8 per user per month
E2: $14 per user per month
E3: $20 per user per month
E4: $22 per user per month

P1, the small business plan, is still $6 per user per month. Kiosk worker plans (K plans) also were cut by 20 percent.

Microsoft officials have said the vast majority — ۹۰ percent or so — of early Office 365 sales were to small businesses, which weren’t really well served by Office 365’s predecessor, Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Officials have denied that Office 365 failing to gain traction with enterprise users, who are the focus of today’s price cuts.

As of September 2011, Microsoft is believed to have 5 million seats signed up for Office 365. Company officials haven’t released any updated sales figures for the product since then.

A fresh start for the Windows 8 desktop:

A fresh start for the Windows 8 desktop

After more than 15 years of service, the Windows Start button–that orb in the lower left corner–is gone, and it’s not coming back. In Windows 8, tapping the Windows key (or the Windows button on a slate) reveals a row of five charms along the right. These subtle white icons appear automatically if you aim the mouse at the upper or lower corners on the right side of the display.

That’s just the beginning. This screenshot gallery offers a hint of how this “reimagined” Windows works. If you’re intrigued by (or skeptical of)  what you see here, remember that static screenshots are no substitute for hands-on experience.

Are you curious about the default background image? That’s a betta fish, which debuted as Microsoft’s mascot for beta Windows releases in Windows 7. The fish has, of course, just blown an air bubble in the shape of an upside-down number 8. And look carefully on the left side of the screen as well for another number 8. (Most of the upper half of the number is visible; the left side and bottom have been cut off.)

And no, “Your name here” is not the default user name. I created a user with that name just for this screenshot.

The Start screen, out of the box

Live tiles personalize the Start screen

Except for the missing Start button, the desktop looks like Windows 7

On a big desktop display, you can arrange dozens of tiles

Personalize the lock screen and allow apps to run in the background here

On the desktop, click the Settings charm to see these familiar options

Microsoft Office 15 apps to include ‘touch mode’

The coming Office 15 client apps all seem to be getting a new ‘touch mode’ button that will enable them to work better on touch-centric devices.

It looks like Office 15 client apps are going to get more touchy, but in a way that won’t force touch on users who don’t want or need it.

One of the big questions many Microsoft watchers have had is how Microsoft plans to make its next-generation Office client apps more touch-friendly, so that they’ll be optimized to work on tablets and PCs running the touch-optimized Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft officials already shared that the four Office 15 apps that will be “included” on Windows 8 on ARM (WOA) tablets will be Desktop apps, not WinRT-based Metro-Style apps. So how will Microsoft make these versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote work better with touch than their current-generation counterparts?

It seems that Microsoft is including a button in each of its Office 15 apps that enables a “touch mode.” This image of the technical preview version of Word 15 — shared by one of my contacts with access to the Office 15 technical preview — shows off that button.

Microsoft Office 15 apps to include 'touch mode'

Currently this button doesn’t really function, according to my contact, who requested anonymity. However, Microsoft’s intention is to enable the Office UI to switch to something more touch-friendly when Office 15 apps are used, my contact said.

This approach also seemingly would allow users who aren’t using Windows 8 on touch-enabled / touch-centric tablets and PCs to continue to navigate in a more natural keyboard / mouse-friendly way by not invoking the touch mode.

The Verge has a few more screen shots of the technical preview versions of some other Office 15 client apps. Given the Verge’s Word screen shot looks basically identical to the Word screen shot that my contact shared, I tend to think these are all the real deal. I’ve put in a query to Microsoft to see if the company has anything to say on these, but I’m not holding my breath.

In case you missed it, earlier this week, I posted some early tidbits about the next version of SharePoint (SharePoint 15). And The Daily posted new information about the alleged Office for iPad release, which may or may not be arriving in a matter of weeks.

My sources are saying Microsoft’s goal is to release to manufacturing the Office 15 client, server and Office 365 complements all by late 2012. Microsoft hasn’t announced its release targets or final name (Office 2012? Office 2013?) for the coming suite.

Microsoft provides sneak peek of next Visual Studio beta

Microsoft provides sneak peek of next Visual Studio beta

Microsoft has begun sharing information about the beta of VS 11, the next release of its tool suite for Windows 8, that will be released on February 29.

Microsoft provides sneak peek of next Visual Studio beta

Microsoft is providing a handful of us pre-selected press with a sneak peek on Thursday February 23 of the coming beta release of Visual Studio 11.

Visual Studio 11 is the codename for the next version of Visual Studio, expected by many to be named officially Visual Studio 2012. Microsoft released a developer preview of VS 11 in September 2011, alongside the developer preview of Windows 8 and Windows Server 8.

Microsoft is on tap to deliver the beta (known officially as the Consumer Preview) of Windows 8 by February 29. The company also is likely to provide a beta of Windows Server 8 at the same time, I’m hearing. And as of today, we now know that the Softies plan to drop the beta of VS 11 and .Net 4.5 beta on February 29, as well. The VS 11 beta will be available under a go-live license.

Visual Studio 11 adds support to Microsoft Visual Studio tool suite for Windows 8. It includes .Net 4.5; support for asynchronous programming in C# and Visual Basic; support for state machines in Windows Workflow; more tooling for HTML5 and CSS 3 in ASP.Net. The product includes templates to help developers in writing Metro-Style — meaning WinRT-based — applications with JavaScript, C#, VB and/or C++.

Microsoft officials are sharing demos and disclosing new features during the sneak peek today. As part of the Visual Studio 11 beta, Microsoft also will be releasing its Team Foundation Server beta. Included in that beta is a new download of TFS, known as Team Foundation Server Express, which includes new core developer features, including source-code control, work-item tracking, build automation and agile taskboard. That SKU will be free for individual and teams of up to five users.

Microsoft officials have not said when to expect the company to release the final version of Visual Studio 2012. I did notice there are quite a few sessions at this year’s TechEd conference in June around Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server and ASP.Net 4.5. But there’s no word in the session line-up as to whether the final version will be out by then. Whenever the final is released, I’d expect it to coincide with the RTM of Windows 8, since Microsoft seems to be trying to keep the two products in lockstep.

Soma Somasegar, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer Division and one of the presenters of the sneak peek, said there are “hundreds and hundreds of new features” in VS11. He said as of the beta, Microsoft is “pretty much done with all the features and functionality” for the product. VS11 will be designed for both professional and non-professional developers, and will be designed to enable developers to touch-enable their applications.

The three themes Microsoft is pursuing with the product, Somasegar said, include the following:

Visual Studio 11-Transforming Your Ideas into Reality

Here are a few more slides from the sneak peek presentation.

Microsoft officials on today’s Webcast emphasized that VS 11 will be aimed at a full cross-section of developers, not just those doing Windows 8/Metro-style apps. There will be enhancements for those building Windows desktop apps, Direct X-based apps and games and client Web apps, too. (There will not be support for XNA on Windows 8, however. Microsoft officials didn’t mention this today, but other Microsoft officials and company watchers have said this semi-publicly before.)

Work with Windows

Microsoft officials emphasized that the VS 11 suite will be useful for developing apps beyond Windows client ones. It will also target those developing .Net Framework 4.5 server apps, Windows Azure apps and SharePoint apps.

Work with Cloud and Web

Here’s a quick glimpse of the VS 11 beta screen shown to us today:

Microsoft Visual Studio

In the Q&A session, Microsoft officials noted that the Visual Studio LightSwitch rapid app development tool is now included in VS Professional and higher. However, in the coming beta LightSwitch won’t (yet) support HTML5 output, they said.

download Microsoft® Visual Studio® ۱۱ Developer Preview (Web Installer)

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems:
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows 7 (x86 and x64)
Windows 8 (x86 and x64)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64)
Windows Server Developer Preview (x64)
Supported Architectures:
32-bit (x86)
64-bit (x64)
Hardware Requirements:
1.6 GHz or faster processor
1 GB of RAM (1.5 GB if running on a virtual machine)
5.5 GB of available hard disk space
5400 RPM hard drive
DirectX 9-capable video card running at 1024 x 768 or higher display resolution

Microsoft and Nokia join forces to take on BlackBerry

Nokia’s Symbian S60 today (August 12, 2009)  became the first non-Windows Mobile platform to receive support for the Microsoft Office Mobile suite of applications and services. Microsoft and Nokia today announced their long-term partnership to collaborate on the design, development, and marketing of mobile productivity solutions.

Beginning next year, Nokia’s E-series handsets will ship with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile built in, and later, other Office applications and software will be added to the Symbian platform, such as mobile versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, as well as SharePoint Server and Microsoft System Center.

Bloggers and journalists speculated that today’s conference was going to announce Windows Mobile coming to Nokia devices, which fell in sync with a simultaneous rumor of Nokia abandoning Symbian for its open source tablet OS Maemo. The latter of these rumors was quickly squashed by Nokia spokespeople responding to several bloggers, and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices, Kai Oistamo, addressed the former rumor by saying “there are no such plans” to make a Windows Mobile Nokia device.

In today’s announcement, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop said, “We remain deeply committed to Windows Mobile…and Nokia is absolutely committed to Symbian. We both believe strongly in our respective strategies…but we both believe in choice.”

The alliance is not aimed at the consumer segment, but rather at combining Microsoft’s strength in enterprise mobility with Nokia’s industry-leading device penetration.Stephen Drake, Vice President of Mobility & Telecom at IDC said, “By bringing Microsoft’s productivity solutions to Nokia’s large customer base, the two companies should be better able to serve the needs of the growing mobile worker population, which IDC estimates to reach 1 billion worldwide in 2011.”

Oistamo said, “This is a formidable challenge for RIM, if for no one else.”