Goed is dit unidirectioneel om marktaandeel te houden als u een kwart van miljoen dollar voor een marketing begroting hebt. Beginnend van vandaag, ontvangt Microsoft een bevordering van twee maand, „De IE7 Winkel met Meer Vertrouwen Sweepstakes“ in samenwerking met PayPal om 25 gelukkige gebruikers elke $10.000 te geven om via PayPal te besteden.

Zeker konden zij dat geld terug in de ontwikkeling van Internet Explorer gezet hebben om tot het a te maken concurrerendere Webbrowser, maar dat zou niet zijn zoals de pret het?

Om binnen te gaan, wordt het voorgesteld u eerst op a let de belachelijk boring animatie van de Flits alvorens wordt opnieuw gericht aan ingangs pagina (of ga enkel rechtstreeks naar het), voltooi dan een ingangsvorm op de bevorderingswebsite. Nochtans zoals de naam voorstelt, is het een bevordering voor Internet Explorer 7 zodat houdt het steek u het zult moeten gebruiken om tot de pagina toegang te hebben. Als u probeert om tot de pagina van andere browsers toegang te hebben, zal het vraag u eerst aan download en installeer IE7. Gelukkig voor Firefox houden de gebruikers zich van, IETab geeft het beste van beide werelden in situaties als dit. Droevig, maar ik voel het zekerdere winkelen met Firefox. Sweepstake beëindigt op 31 Januari, 2008.

Soms dit wenste ik Australië enkel kon worden 51ste staat van de Verenigde Staten enkel zo kan ik aan al deze deelnemen sweepstakes. En voor een tijdje onder de overheid van Howard, die niet te ver scheen

Ik ben benieuwd geweest wanneer Microsoft definitief zal uitvoeren Silverlight op zijn eigen website. Lange tijd, de animatie Silverlight op frontpage de reclame van was enigszins van een teleurstelling en een paradox - ironisch vereisend dat Silverlight wordt geïnstalleerdo om de advertentie te bekijken die met de mogelijkheden van zich pronkt.

Vandaag (via ActiveWin), heeft Microsoft stil a gelanceerd bèta van zijn website van het Centrum van Downloads volledig voorgesteld in Silverlight die enkele rijke gebruiker-ervaring mogelijkheden demonstreert het lang belovend is geweest. Hoewel om niet te zeggen het zijn eerlijk aandeel problemen niet ook niet heeft.

Op welkom pagina of the Microsoft Download Center beta website, they explain the purpose of the beta and their goals to “spruce up the site and make it easier to discover and download Microsoft software”. The only requirement is at least Silverlight version 0.95 to be installed.

At first look, this site bears a lot of resemblance to the current Microsoft.com frontpage which is a good sign of consistency - something the Microsoft site lacks very much. But it also means what you see here at least can be easily achieved with just traditional HTML and CSS. Only when you start interacting with certain elements you begin to notice the difference. And for a Microsoft site, they’ve certainly raised the bar in terms of attention to detail.

For example, the navigation menu on the right has a baby-smooth transition between as one category collapses and

Say hello to an orchestra of sound snippet in your instant messenger. The Windows Live Messenger 9.0 beta was released today sporting a handful of new features as already uncovered last week by LiveSide. One feature in particular called Signature Sound is giving users the power to customize the sound their contacts hear when they come online. However as annoying that might sound (pun), what’s more interesting and actually useful is the embedded sound editor used to customize your Signature Sound and every other sound in Messenger.

From here, you can select any sound files in WMA, WAV or MP3 format to edit. Once you click on a valid sound file, it will take a few seconds to analyze the file and display a sound wave spectrum for you to edit.

The interface for this editor is similar to any mainstream sound editor applications in which it displays a selection box with a start and end point to clip a segment of an audio track. Messenger restricts all of its sounds to a maximum of 5 seconds which might seem to restrict creativity, but you’ll be thankful when your friends pop online later.

The user can move the left and right boundaries anywhere between the two blue arrows to define a start and end of their sound clip. To move back and forth in the timeline, you simply drag the

Thanks to a tip from Steve Clayton, a treasure chest of Windows Longhorn inspired PC design concepts has been just unearthed. An industrial design company located in San Francisco called Ammunition were recently interviewed as part of a Wired article on evolving PC designs. Following the link to their website shows an array of computer-related design concepts for a variety of companies including Microsoft.

An image overlay of a Longhorn screenshot indicates these were commissioned for the purpose of demonstrating to OEMs how Microsoft envisioned Longhorn PCs. In relations to the other Microsoft-commissioned Windows PC concepts by Carbon Design, these are much earlier. The Aero Glass theme is clearly carried throughout in both concepts.

Microsoft Oxygen concept desktop system that converts from typical use mode, to media viewing, to pen input.

Microsoft Zinc concept intended for countertop use.

Microsoft Carbon concept micro PC with high object value.

Microsoft Argon concept entertainment biased all-in-one PC.

Microsoft Cobalt convertible notebook/tablet system.

It’s interesting to see how similar the Oxygen is to the current generation iMacs when they are easily years apart of each other. But it’s important to realize Apple designs Macs but Microsoft doesn’t design Windows PCs. To say Microsoft doesn’t have taste is not entirely correct if the above concepts are any indication.

Yesterday I got one of these promotional pocket cards for Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2008 competition, and in it was a clever surprise. Imagine Cup for those who don’t know is an annual Microsoft-sponsored competition exclusively for students worldwide to compete in a range of computer technology related categories including but not limited to software design, games development and film. This year’s theme is the environment.

The special touch to the pocket card is a little piece of plantable seed paper attached to the bottom. It contains the seeds of a native Australian shrub called Callistemon. Whilst it would have been way cooler if the entire card was printed on seed paper, this is a great effort to do something positive for the environment as well as promoting native Australian plants.

The Microsoft event for freeloading students called “Mix On Campus” happened yesterday in Melbourne and I went along because I very well fit the description. It has also been a few weeks after finishing my university exams so it’s a good chance to reunite with a couple of friends, fresh air and sunlight. The event was organized by the Microsoft Australia Academic’s Nick Ellery who put in a lot of generous time and effort to give students a free ticket to live some (and I’m sure it’s barely a scrape) of the real MIX experience in Vegas or ReMIX in Melbourne a few months ago.

For students, it was an invaluable opportunity to take a first-hand look at some of the new Microsoft web and design applications and services as well as network with industry professionals.

As expected, everyone showed up 5 minutes before the event (including myself). It might look empty now, but it easily reached a hundred people once the big hand struck 10.

Handy Microsoft Student Partners were on-site to help.

Unfortunately the person who hooked up the XBOX was what people in the industry call a “noob”.
See if you can spot the mistake.

Nick