Microsoft To Push Vista With New Campaign

To say that Windows Vista wasn't a particularly successful upgrade for Microsoft would be an understatement.

It's an operating system that's been plagued with problems since release and among other things, just doesn't offer enough genuine advantages over the now relatively stable and hardware friendly XP.
Microsoft recently extended the life of Windows XP to 2010 (it was originally going to be binned at the end of last month) for just these reasons, but hasn't given up on try to persuade people to move on.

A new $300m campaign looks to stoke up consumer demand for the OS with the software giant all but admitting the initial release was a bit of a balls-up, but 'everything's ok now'.

Personally we're still sceptical, and like a child that cries and wets its pants when mummy tries to take away a toy it's too old to play with, are happy to stick with XP for a bit longer.

If you've been sitting on the fence in recent times you can check out Microsoft's new product page, which includes the top 10 things to try and 100 reasons to upgrade and is entitled "Why Now?" from the link below. We wonder if the words "For the love of god..." were dropped from that particular headline during a final briefing

Comment.
Microsoft should drive down the cost of Vista so low that people might start considering investing in it. I mean in uk something like £30. Get people using it.

Otherwise waste $300 million. We still don't care. All we need is more official themes like the Zune theme for XP and we're more than happy with it.

X box live now with user generated contents

Microsoft user pilicies is becoming more optimistic to the user and considering the demand of Xbox Microsoft has now revealed that it will allow anyone to create, share and sell games through Xbox LIVE Community Games, a new marketplace created for user-generated content for Xbox 360 users.

This announcement was made at the Gamefest 2008, Microsoft Game Technology Conference along with some more announcements including Games for Windows Live service for free and the Games for Windows Live Marketplace, a new digital distribution service.
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It was first made available to the Xbox video game console. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at that system's launch. Games for Windows - Live makes certain aspects of the system available on Windows Vista PCs, with plans to extend Live to other platforms such as handhelds and mobile phones as part of the Live Anywhere initiative


Microsoft will now offer all aspects of the Games for Windows Live service for free. The new policy was shared at the GameFest 2008 conference. Additional news talk of a new digital distribution service from Microsoft called the Games for Windows Live Marketplace. It's not a stretch to imagine this new initiative to closely mirror the Xbox Live Marketplace offering on the Xbox 360 console. Clearly, Microsoft plans to extend its gaming and entertainment store to its PC operating system. It would be interesting to learn just how much of the Xbox Live Marketplace will come over to the PC -- would this include their content deal with Netflix, NBC Universal and others, one wonders.
Bringing up the rear is news of DirectX 11. Yes, it is official, and it will include support for GPU programming: "The final, commercial release will be available for both the next version of Windows and for Windows Vista at the time that the next version of Windows becomes available", said Kevin Unangst, Microsoft's Senior Director of Global Gaming, in an interview .

Apple Launching App Store Beta Program

A Shopping Trip
To the App Store
For Your iPhone
The single best feature in Apple's second-generation iPhone 3G isn't the increased speed or the GPS location-finding feature. It is something called the "App Store," a clever distribution mechanism for third-party programs that can run on the iPhone and on its close cousin, the iPod Touch. And you don't even need a new iPhone to get the App Store. It is also part of a free software upgrade for older iPhones and a $10upgrade for the Touch.

In just the first 10 days since the new iPhone and the App Store launched on July 11, more than 900 programs -- applications, or "apps," in tech jargon -- have been introduced by numerous developers. Over 90% cost less than $10 or are free.

Even more noteworthy: iPhone and Touch users have downloaded 25 million copies of these programs, ranging from silly sound effects to challenging games; from news readers to restaurant locators; from social-networking programs to business applications.

Apple's App Store has seen an unprecedented amount of success and exposure since its launch, with millions of total downloads and 909 applications already available. Unfortunately, Apple has been unable to keep up with the influx of submissions from developers (each app must be approved before it appears on the store), leaving many companies frustrated and confused as their apps sit in limbo.

Adding to the frustration has been the difficulty associated with testing an application. As Craig Hockenberry, one of the people behind the popular app Twitterific explains:

The big problem here is that the only way to install software on an iPhone or iPod touch is with the App Store. There are also no provisions for beta testing¿ The only way to ?test? a fix is to release the changes to tens of thousands of users. It?s the developer equivalent of playing Russian roulette."

Now we're hearing from an app developer that Apple is finally going to start rolling out a new beta program in the next few days. Details are slim, but it seems like Apple is capping the total number of beta participants at 100 per app. In order to download a beta app, users will need to submit their iPhone's serial number to the developer, who will then need to flag its eligibility in the store itself. All betas will still be distributed through the App Store - you won't be able to download one on an external site.

It sounds like developers that haven't had their apps approved yet will still be able to participate in the beta program. This should alleviate some of the developers' anxiety (at least they'll know their app will work once it goes live), but it still doesn't address the the delays and lack of communication that many developers are complaining about.