Tech PIVI

What is the Xbox One? If you're a video-game aficionado, you know the answer: It's Microsoft's latest game console, and it arrives in North America and Europe on Friday. To gamers, Xbox means cutting-edge adventures such as "Halo" and "Gears of War," and well as the brand that brought online competition to the masses through Xbox Live. But Microsoft wants you to think of Xbox One as more than a game machine. You can use it to watch movies on Netflix and Hulu Plus. You can hook it up to your cable box to watch live TV. You can Skype your grandma and share family photos through the SkyDrive storage service. Still, if you're considering buying an Xbox One this week, you probably have one thing in mind: games. The Xbox One is a chunky black box that's a little larger than its predecessor, the Xbox 360. It arrives with a respectable library of 22 titles, all sold separately. By and large, they look just as pr...

At the Nokia World 2012 event held a few days ago, Nokia revealed everything about the new Lumia handsets except their launch dates and prices. Rumours indicated earlier that Nokia would launch the Lumia 920 in global markets by November. As per a recent report, this handset will be priced at Euro 600 ($758), which translates to approximately Rs 42,000. The author of WMPowerUser , Surur states, “The Nokia Lumia 920 will be released in Germany in mid-October and will retail for 600 Euro ($758, £476). The Austrian art magazine ‘Future Zone‘ reported that Nokia wants to deliver the Lumia 920 from the middle of October in Germany. They expect the handset to initially launch only in a few countries, much like the roll-out of the Nokia Lumia 800, before being available everywhere. The handset will be introduced first in Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Russia, before becomes available in late October in Poland. The Scandinavian countries, Portugal and Spain will receive the handse...

Bing has introduced a new feature that allows users to search Facebook photos within the search engine. Users can access this via Bing social sidebar or by visiting www.bing.com/friendsphotos. When you use Bing search engine to browse photos, you will get results arranged in Pinterest-style waterfall layout, as in the image below: The new feature also enables users to look for photos by keywords (matching texts in photo captions or album titles). It may be noted here this feature isn't available on Facebook right now. “With more than 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook per day, photo viewing is one of the most popular things people do on Facebook,” Bing wrote in a  blog post . “Bing now lets you quickly find that special photo (out of your friends’ thousands) on Facebook with the new Friends’ Photo feature.” Bing has also taken care of users' privacy, as it only lists photos that have been made public or viewable to friends by a user. Once users a...

While it is in just a few more weeks that Windows 8 will hit store shelves, the Redmond Company has already released its enterprise solution to the market. Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Server 2012, which it has dubbed as the cloud OS. Microsoft says that the new server OS maximizes the utility of cloud computing. Microsoft says that with changing trends, the IT sector is becoming more people-centric and therefore the new OS tries to integrate cloud-based technologies heavily. Since people are often accessing company data on personal machines, Microsoft says that Windows Server 2012 keeps the apps and data secured regardless of the end machine thanks to a security protocol with two requirements; a password and encryption of data. There is also emphasis on improving the virtual environment on the OS, be it for end user data or the virtualization of the entire server farm. Microsoft also believes that they have now a better implementation of clo...

In advance of one of the most significant waves of product launches in Microsoft’s history, Microsoft unveiled a new logo for the company on Thursday. It’s been 25 years since this company have updated the it's logo and now is the perfect time for a change. This is an incredibly exciting year for Microsoft as they prepare to release new versions of nearly all of their products. From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs. That’s the new logo below. Courtesy : http://blogs.technet.com

Microsoft has officially opened registration for new Windows 7 users (who purchase Windows 7 PC between June 2, 2012 – January 31, 2013) to upgrade to Windows 8. Microsoft is offering the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99. It may be recalled that the Indian consumers are entitled to a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for a price of just Rs. 699. Microsoft in a  tweet  announced, “"The @Windows upgrade offer is now available in 140 countries. Register now!  http://windowsupgradeoffer.co m ." To upgrade, users will be required to provide their 25-digit Windows 7 OEM product key as part of their online registration process. Starting October 26th, the company will start sending out promo codes through e-mail, which can be applied upon checkout within the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. It's notable the offer is valid till February 28th, 2013, after which users will have to shell out the full price – though the company has not yet revealed what it would be. ...

With its closing stock market value on Monday, Apple Inc. has become the biggest U.S. company, at $623.52 billion, taking away the crown held by Microsoft Corp. since its December 1999 market valuation at $616.34 billion – that's of course, not taking into account inflation. Apple Inc.'s share price closed at $665.15 on Monday, and according to analysts quoted by WSJ, the company would command a $1,000 share price by the end of the year. Experts estimate that prices would need to be greater than $900 to surpass Microsoft’s 1999 record, after inflation. $1 in 1999 is worth around $1.38 in 2012, making Microsoft's 1999 valuation roughly $856 billion in constant dollars. Also, as pointed out by TechCrunch, after adjusting for inflation, the  biggest U.S. company of all time is IBM, whose record-breaking $192.3 billion market valuation in 1967 is now roughly equal to $1.3 trillion ($1 in 1967 is worth $6.85 in 2012). Currently however, both previous record holders,...

Nokia is holding a media event in New York on Sept 5, and speculation all over the Internet is that the company may unveil its long awaited Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Adding fuel to this rumour is the fact that the event will be held jointly with Microsoft. This could be the beginning of the unveiling of Windows Phone 8 devices as other manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung are expected to launch their Windows Phone 8 devices before the holiday season. Also Windows 8, Microsoft’s desktop and tablet OS will be hitting store shelves in October. Microsoft and Nokia are holding the event a week before Apple is expected to unveil its next iPhone. The sixth generation iPhone, currently known as theiPhone 5 is expected to be unveiled on Sept 12. The iPhone 5 is expected to have a larger screen, smaller dock connector and will run on Apple’s new mobile OS, iOS 6. If you are already a Windows Phone 7.5 user, there is bad news for you as your d...

Microsoft has released a 90-day trial edition for its final version of Windows 8 operating system, which is slated to go on sale on October 26 this year. The trial, however, is available only for the Enterprise edition of Windows 8 and is aimed at developers who intend to build apps, and IT administrators who want to try out the new OS before making their decision to migrate, all ahead of its official debut. Microsoft recently released final version of Windows 8 to MSDN and Technet subscribers. The Windows 8 Enterprise trial edition is available in 32 and 64 bits versions. To download the operating system, users need to have a subscription to Windows Live. Also, users need to have a 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and 20GB of hard disk space as minimum setup requirement. A number of trial ISO images are also provided for a variety of languages in x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit)versions. The Enterprise edition comes with all the features of Windows 8 Pro an...

On August 1, Microsoft released Windows 8 to PC manufacturers. Starting August 15, developers can download this final build of the operating system from TechNet or MSDN and reviewers like me are finally allowed to write about the near-final version of Microsoft's big gamble for the future of Windows. The public release of the operating system and PCs running it won't happen until its General Availability on October 26. I got an early look, and tested the latest version of the OS by upgrading an Intel-based Windows 8 Samsung tablet to RTM. The public can still get a pretty close idea of what Microsoft's re-imagining of Windows is like by downloading the Release Preview and installing it on any Windows 7–capable hardware. Never has there been a more apt application of the acronym FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt—when it came to an approaching operating system. Uncertainty can certainly characterize a lot of people's thoughts about Windows 8, and one of the main unc...

The testimony from Apple patent licensing director Boris Teksler came in one of the most closely watched technology trials in years. Apple   Inc licensed its prized design patents to   Microsoft   Corp but with an "anti-cloning agreement" to prevent copying of its   iPhone   and   iPad , an Apple executive said on Monday.   The testimony from Apple patent licensing director   Boris Teksler   came in one of the most closely watched technology trials in years. Apple is accusing   Samsung Electronics   Co Ltd   of copying its iPhone and iPad, while the Korean company says Apple infringes several of its wireless technology patents.   Apple had reached out to Samsung in 2010, hoping to strike an agreement with its rival on patent licensing before their dispute hit the courts.   Teksler testified that Apple offered a clutch of patents for licensing but, crucially, viewed patents related to what he c...

It's a dilemma faced by most technophiles—to buy the new, sleek, feature-rich gadget or wait for its enhanced version six months later. We help you take a decision about six devices rumoured to be out soon. Blame it on the pace of technological progress, but today there are almost as many interesting products in the pipeline as there are in the market. The result: consumers are torn between buying a product as soon as it is out or biding their time and waiting for a better one just around the corner. In fact, many people have postponed their purchase of iPhone 4S because they expect the new iPhone (about which no official word is available) to be released later this year. This is the case with a number of other high-profile products, rumoured as well as real, which have consumers in a tizzy. Your decision to buy now or later depends on your need. If you are not in a hurry, rest assured that something better will come along. Here's a look at six such devices ...