Facebook and Social Startups Meme.

Tech News via RSS, venture news blog

Technology News

Tag Archive: microsoft

Microsoft Courier Gets Strangled: I Guess Microsoft Should Marry Google And Power The Tablet With Android

Posted April 30, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb124 Microsoft Courier Gets Strangled: I Guess Microsoft Should Marry Google And Power The Tablet With Android

Apple has taken the lead with power tablets with the iPad and while all of us would have been anticipating tough competition to step forth, it is actually being put off. How? Well Microsoft is set to give up on Courier, what it termed to be the future of tablet PCs. To be honest, from what the specs state the device was ought to be pretty impressive, boasting a dual screen, camera, multi-touch and a whole of other features. Sadly it might never be seen.

If I am not wrong, Windows 7 has touch support but sadly enough that would fail big time to provide users with the experience the iPad does. I can guarantee that Microsoft would have released the Courier had Apple postponed or never come out with the iPad. With the power Apple brings with its latest device, it was obvious this had to happen. And oh that’s not it, rumors have it that HP might be pulling the strings off its slate too. Though my resources say it’s a pure rumor and the HP will definitely be launching the gadget soon and its acquisition of Palm earlier for $1.2 Billion is quite an indication why it would as it gives them hold of the webOS another option for the OS instead of the Windows Mobile 7.

Read More »

Tags: , , , , ,
0

One Year Ago Today: 27th April 2009

Posted April 27, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb106 One Year Ago Today: 27th April 2009

With another daily addition of blast from the past, we go back one year to explore what made news on this date last year. Yahoo, Google, iPhone, Microsoft and Apple dominated tech news on our blog. As always we must have missed out news that was circling the Web and would appreciate if our readers can share the same with us in comments.

Read More »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Microsoft Integrates Docs With Facebook: Talk About Being ‘Friendly’!

Posted April 21, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb75 Microsoft Integrates Docs With Facebook: Talk About Being ‘Friendly’!

Microsoft Office for Facebook! Now wasn’t this bound to happen given that Microsoft has huge shares in Facebook and the social network has an influence on the Web that it can leverage for its own growth? Today at the f8 conference Facebook announced the coming of Docs, the online version of Microsoft Office, or to put it in a more clichéd manner; The Google Docs competitor.

Given that the social network is head over heels to make Social the default for the Web, Microsoft plans to capitalize on this and have users bring their connections to the Office suite online. Users will be able to integrate with Docs by using their social network credentials and begin to use the long dominant word processing suite online, a move that Microsoft had been planning since last year with much noise about the Microsoft Office 2010 product. The move is way better than launching the same using other methods like getting people to register or signup with their email accounts.

Read More »

Tags: , , , , ,
0

Leveraging Farmville And The Likes – Not a Bad Idea To Amass Fans On Your Page

Posted March 4, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb10 Leveraging Farmville And The Likes – Not a Bad Idea To Amass Fans On Your Page

Now when your fans increase from 1 to 5 it isn’t worth talking about anything but if a single step of yours pushes you from 100,000 to 500,000, it’s worth every word I write. Microsoft has surged overnight from having 100,000 followers to 500,000. What was their magic spell? Give those Farmville addicts currency in exchange of becoming a fan of Bing on its Facebook fan page.

The killer idea was that they enticed users to join in without actually having to leave their game and become fans of Bing. The trouble is who exactly is becoming a fan there? I mean you can have all sorts of people joining in for a bribe of the ever important Facebook Credits or some worthless virtual currency. The purpose here was primarily to make Bing the default search engine choice when it comes to finding tips for the game. How stupid. I mean wouldn’t it be easier for users to figure those out on blogs or with the friends who are busy engaged in the game as well?

Read More »

Tags: , , , ,
0

Microsoft’s Zune HD Finally Brings Facebook App For Its Users

Posted March 1, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb Microsoft’s Zune HD Finally Brings Facebook App For Its Users

The wait is over for Zune HD owners as Microsoft finally gets ahead and brings a Facebook App for the device. That did take a lot of time, given that the promises were actually made to bring it for users back in 2009. The best part? Well it is free of the ad plague and you can get it without paying a nickel for it.

There isn’t much different about the app, meaning it lets you do all the much needed functions you need to do on the social network. Like updating status, viewing photos, browsing through profiles of friends and sending messages. All in all it lets you do whatever you want to do on the social network from your mobile. What actually makes it different one bit, is that you can set the songs you are playing on your device as the current status by simply clicking, or to put it more correctly tapping the Zune Button near your status bar.

Read More »

Tags: , , ,
0

Microsoft Goes More Social As Facebook, MySpace Come to Outlook

Posted February 17, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb34 Microsoft Goes More Social As Facebook, MySpace Come to Outlook

That was so much set to happen. Microsoft has finally taken the step to introduce the integration of social networking sites to its leading desktop mail client, Outlook. Called the Outlook Social Connector, it will be integrated with mail client in Office 2010. It definitely took some time, given that the integration was announced back in November 2009.

To be honest, all this happening sounds quite exciting, especially since Google only recently announced its Google Buzz product and almost immediately, Facebook and Microsoft have taken steps to counter the same in the early stages. Microsoft has already released integration with LinkedIn for all version and the deals with MySpace and Facebook. With this coming out, users will be able to keep an eye on the person’s most recent social networking activity. Much like many things you do already and know of. Like your personal contact from your professional network, LinkedIn or your status updates flooding in from Facebook.

Read More »

Tags: , , ,
0

Microsoft Set To Fish Happy Aquarium From Facebook Developer, CrowdStar

Posted February 11, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

CropperCapture34 thumb Microsoft Set To Fish Happy Aquarium From Facebook Developer, CrowdStar

There is so much Microsoft looks forward to when it comes to Facebook that the giant would do anything to have more stakes in the social network. It already has signed up Zynga to bring its game on MSN live and today rumors of it buying CrowdStar surfaced too. CrowdStar is one of the leading game developers for Facebook games and its most popular game is Happy Aquarium with more than 26 million active users per month.

Read More »

Tags: , , , ,
2

God Save Us From Zynga! Farmville Spreads To MSN Games And The Messenger

Posted February 4, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb19 God Save Us From Zynga! Farmville Spreads To MSN Games And The Messenger

There you go, I thought Facebook will be the only one being infected by Zynga. Sadly that is not happening as the lead developer of Facebook Apps, like Farmville and many other Ville has shook hands with MSN Games. The result? Well all those Farmville addicts will now be able to play the game via the Games on MSN. More importantly each of these users will be able to connect to the existing 75 million users with the help of Facebook Connect. Bizarre!

While I might be hating all this and to be honest I am maxed out on hate, what’s worth noting here is the fact that with this partnership, the apps destined for Facebook will now have a channel to spread outside the social network. And those will include almost every brand on the Web, including the likes of Yahoo and perhaps even Google. And that’s just Zynga making the jump and the rest are all eager to follow the bandwagon. All this might very well be the result of Microsoft’s ever increasing love for Facebook and plan to work with it in a much closely knit manner, perhaps that way it could monetize the gaming aspect to its own advantage without burdening Facebook with the worry of monetizing content.

Read More »

Tags: , , , ,
1

Facebook: The Platform Of Platforms, RSS [Really Simply Stated]

Posted February 3, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

image thumb17 Facebook: The Platform Of Platforms, RSS [Really Simply Stated]

Why doesn’t it surprise me, or does it even surprise anyone around when Hitwise reports of Facebook being the largest platform for reading news? Now it might be following the likes of Google, Yahoo and even MSN at number four, the point why I would consider it even more important is the fact the top three are search engines and they direct traffic back to the source sites. Watch Facebook and it is a bit different.

Read More »

Tags: , , , ,
0

Experience Facebook From Your Desktop With Microsoft’s Silverlight Client

Posted January 26, 2010 by Sardar Mohkim Khan

CropperCapture49 thumb Experience Facebook From Your Desktop With Microsoft’s Silverlight Client

I have enjoyed using Facebook over time and have always wished for a better and more interactive way, primarily outside the browser itself. To be honest using the social network within the browser killed the efficiency ad slowed the entire process of browsing down, especially if you have multiple tabs open and were using Facebook chat. And while TweetDeck did bring the status updates from your Facebook profile to its app, it wasn’t really worth it. In comes Microsoft with its Beta client of Silverlight for Facebook and my first impression is WOW.

Read More »

Tags: , , ,
4