Microsoft has finally launched its Photosynth software to the public, after teasing us with it since way back in 2006. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by all of the demonstrations in the last two years, featuring gorgeous shots from the BBC, National Geographic and NASA, and have been waiting desperately to try it myself.

(more…)

I’ve just tried downloading Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope (a contradiction in terms, given that the idea of a telescope is to look beyond our world, surely?).

Given that the software is partly aimed at kids, it’s good to see Microsoft has made the installation process nice and simple.

Space cadets.

It’s been a good couple of weeks since Microsoft started pushing out XP Service Pack 3 through Automatic Update, yet I’m still to see hide nor hair of the blighter.

I’ve got Automatic Update turned on and other patches are coming down the pipe with depressing regularity, but not the big boy.

I’ve headed off to Windows Update to see if I can manually tempt the swine on to my system, but the site seems oblivious to XP SP3’s very existence. I’m being offered Office Comaptbility Pack Service Pack 1 (packs for packs? Give me strength), an update for Outlook 2007 and the first Service Pack for Office 2008 Accounting, but not a sniff of the final Service Pack for the most popular operating system in the company’s history.

(more…)

There are doubtless a number of things Microsoft employees will miss about Bill Gates when he toddles off to airdrop billions on charities, but his email rants won’t be one of them.

To mark his passing, the Seattle Post Intelligencer has dug out what it bills as an “epic rant” to poor Jim Allchin, describing the world of pain the Microsoft boss sufferred when he tried to download and install Windows Moviemaker in 2003.

(more…)

Opportunities to interview Bill Gates don’t come along that often (Lord knows, we’ve tried). Even the BBC, with its undoubted worldwide clout, has only managed to pin down the Microsoft chairman for a decent interview twice in the past decade.

The first time was in 1999, when a poorly-briefed (and I’m not refering to his infamous pants) Jeremy Paxman interviewed Gates. Paxman lobbed in his trademark terse questions, but lacked the knowledge to disect Gates’s answers with even a hint of the ferociousness he reserves for polticians.

As this Slashdot reviewer said of the Paxman interview: “He challenged Gates on various issues, even mentioning Linus Torvalds, but unfortunately Jeremy isn’t a technology expert, so the topic of open standards and protocols wasn’t raised, and when Gates’ asserted that the field was wide open for anyone to do what he and Microsoft have done, Jeremy didn’t know enough to point out that when someone begins to look like they might challenge Microsoft’s position, they get driven out of business or acquired.”

(more…)

This is a piece of class. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team has sent the Firefox pack a congratulatory cake to celebrate the launch of Firefox 3. Say what you want about their browser and Microsoft as a whole but it’s a grand gesture between two extremely fierce rivals.

It’s not the first time they’ve done it, either. The Microsoft team sent Mozilla a cake after the Firefox 2 launch [pictured], though it has to be said the new one is nicer - follow this link to go and see the Firefox 3 celebration cake.

So, Microsoft wants to be able to silence your mobile at will… I like it.

Let’s begin where all good stories should. Microsoft has filed a patent for a technology it’s calling Digital Manners Policy which would basically tell your phone what features could be used in certain situations. For example, enter a cinema and DMP would automatically shift your phone to vibrate mode, so the ringing doesn’t disturb others watching the film. In a museum it could disable your camera, stopping you from photographing rare portraits. If somebody robbed a bank, they could presumably hack the DMP to stop outgoing phonecalls - but that’s neither here or there, really.
(more…)

Yes, it is true, Steve ‘Barmy’ Ballmer the exuberant Microsoft CEO has confirmed that he is to retire. The 52 year old originator of the Monkey Dance as performed in tribute by Ricky Gervais during an episode of The Office, was speaking to an audience in Washington earlier in the week when he let slip the big decision: he will be stepping down from his role as big cheese of the biggest software company on the planet.

(more…)

I can’t remember the last time a Microsoft technology demo knocked my socks off.  But yesterday, during a presentation for this year’s Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s Mark Taylor demonstrated the company’s Deep Zoom technology to appreciative gasps of admiration from the computing students present. And one demo-weary journalist.

Taylor started with a web browser displaying a rather grainy photo of Paul McCartney’s signature:

So far so what? But then he zoomed out of the photo to reveal that the signature was actually a tiny detail on the foot of a Beatles figuerine:

(more…)

Forgive me if I have misread the ‘Business Value of Windows Vista‘ paper that Microsoft has published in an attempt to convince the corporate user to switch to Vista now instead of waiting for the arrival of Windows 7 instead. However, the way I read it, it seems that Microsoft, when it says users jumping from XP to Windows 7 will have “a similar applications compatibility experience… as exists moving to Windows Vista from Windows XP” are actually saying that both migrations are pretty dire.

(more…)