The event of Microsoft events, Professional Developers Conference is being held again next week in Los Angeles and you’re all invited to the virtual house of fun that is the keynote liveblog.

Following the overwhelming response and success of the last year’s (multi-site) group liveblog experiment, the cast and crew is signed up again for season two including Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren and yours truly. In addition, we’re also taking aboard the feedback we heard from last year to make this even better.

The two keynotes we will be liveblogging are on Tuesday 17th of November and Wednesday 18th of November, both from 8.30am to 10.30am Pacific Standard Time. Please check back on this blog on the day to find the CoverItLive viewer.

Of course there is considerable doubt this year’s keynotes can match the caliber of last year’s announcements, but it is PDC after all and I don’t think Microsoft can afford to not impress.

Update: Outlook and other calendar application users can download a convenient ICAL schedule here.

Disclosure: I am attending PDC09 as a guest of Microsoft Australia.

It turns out 2019 is getting closer every day. At the moment, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie is doing the rounds at a number of prestigious colleges in the States showing off Microsoft’s vision for technology to solve the world’s biggest problems. Of course, one must use the latest in natural user interfaces for this task.

A feature of this year’s tour appears to be a next-generation computer – one that docks and undocks from a transparent glass display and allows for not only pen and voice input as you’d come to expect from natural user interfaces, but also incorporates touchless gestures and eye-tracking to interact with the information at hand.

Personally I’ve never seen eye-tracking used as an input before, but after seeing this demo, it makes so much sense to skim vasts amounts of information with your eye.

I’ll let these two videos do the rest of the talking.

No doubt with any fancy prototype it’s usually very difficult to distinguish just how much of the demo is real and how much of it is simulated – either by timers or remote-control, but knowing Microsoft Research and what they’re capable of, I’m willing to bet it’s all real.

On a related note, it appears now Microsoft’s new vision is a glass-display on every desk. Time to get in the window cleaning business perhaps?

If you have a reasonably new laptop with an Intel WiFi chipset then I have some good news. A set of new Intel WiFi drivers made available just a couple weeks ago, version 13.0.0.107 if you’re playing along, finally adds the necessary driver-level support for the new native Virtual WiFi technology in Windows 7.

After downloading and installing the drivers (32-bit here, 64-bit here), assuming your WiFi chipset supports the functionality (which I can verify the 5300 can but 3945 cannot), a new “Wireless Network Connection” with the adapter name “Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport” will automatically appear in your network connections.

Recently, the internet has been abuzz with a new software called Connectify which interacts with this Windows 7 Virtual WiFi technology, but it appears their intention is to sell this application once its finalized. Personally I find it ludicrous that someone would charge for what is essential a wrapper to some functionality already baked into Windows.

To set up and use Virtual WiFi in Windows 7, without paying a buck, just follow these three simple steps:

• Open an elevated command line with administrative privileges and type
  netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Test key=password
  replacing the name and password with your own preference.
• Start the adapter by
  netsh wlan start hostednetwork
• Share an existing connection to it by going to the “Properties” of a connection, selecting the “Sharing” tab and enabling ICS and choosing the corresponding Virtual WiFi adapter.

Of course this functionality isn’t that useful day-to-day, but a powerful usage scenario for this internet sharing functionality via Virtual WiFi will be when you’re at an airport or hotel which limits your connection to a single wireless adapter. Not only would this save you playing switcheroo with the hotspot, but it might also save you paying for multiple connections if you’re traveling with somebody else.

Just when I thought Windows phones had already one too many layers between the end-user and Microsoft, they’ve just decided to add in one more for good measure.

Announced today, Microsoft has signed on a third-party, Bsquare, to be the first and currently exclusive distributor for Windows Mobile licenses worldwide.

Until just recently, Microsoft has had full control of Windows Mobile licensing to OEMs like HTC who would purchase them to ship with their mobile phones. Instead, it appears Microsoft has relinquished this right entirely to Bsquare, who will on top of just selling licenses, also provide reference designs, communication stacks, technical support, training, testing and the like to OEMs. Apparently 30 existing Windows Mobile partners have already made the switch as their contracts with Microsoft ended.

Whilst I won’t pretend to have a crystal clear idea of the implications of this, I do see two sides of the coin covered slightly in mud.

On one hand, delegating the responsibility to what could be potentially many license distributors might fuel competition in the ecosystem to develop higher quality devices as testing and certification improves. This would also allow Microsoft to focus solely on the task of developing the operating system and not spend as much time supporting the relationship with each OEM.

On the other hand, adding a third-party between device OEMs and Microsoft might result in even longer delays in the process a new OS is developed and is available on devices as the updates won’t trickle down just one layer but two. In fact, this probably explains why Microsoft has been clamping down on modified ROMs lately – built with newer leaked builds of Windows Mobile – as they no longer hold that right to distribute the code.

I just have a feeling this isn’t going to end well.

Furthering the barrage of Windows 7 promotions on Australia’s television network Nine, the operating system made a special appearance on the Australian wanna-be-version of “The Apprentice” TV show this evening as part of a competition for the contestants to design a television advertisements.

If you’ve missed the thrilling hour of egos and tension, then be glad Microsoft didn’t go with either of the campaigns pitched which to be fair was conceptualized, directed and edited in just a single day.

On a related note, Nine in collaboration with Microsoft is hosting a competition on the show’s website to give away a Windows 7 Sony Vaio X-series laptop and Sony 10mp digital camera.

Unfortunately to enter you will have to put on a thinking cap and come up with your own idea for a Windows 7 ad. It’s stated in the terms and conditions entries will be judged on creativity, humor and originality, so don’t bother with “Windows 7 was my idea”. Entries close Sunday, 29 November.

A trademark application filed earlier this month has quietly revealed a new logo for Microsoft’s online content brand MSN and, presumably, also its many regional subsidiaries.

Unfortunately with only a black and white preview to work with, it’s not fair to judge the new logo just yet but its obvious it still retains the now iconic butterfly which was actually not that well received when it debuted in early 2000. And like many recent logo redesigns, this too seems to be all about simplifying the elements with the body of the butterfly removed and wings rounded off to roughly stretched ellipses.

Ever since parts of MSN was (painfully) rebranded under Windows Live, the brand has lost some of its meaning and mojo. I can only hope with this new logo will also come a refresh of the entire brand that clears the slate on what they do and where they’re heading.