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Redmond seems to have more grandiose ideas for Connected Car than it's let on before, judging from a recent help wanted ad on its site. Reading more like PR for its car-based plans, the job notice waxes poetically about using "the full power of the Microsoft ecosystem" in an upcoming auto platform with tech such as Kinect, Azure, Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Those products would use face-tracking, speech and gestures to learn your driving habits and safely guide or entertain you on the road, according to the software engineer listing. It also hints that everything would be tied together using Azure's cloud platform, so that your favorite music or shortcuts would follow you around, even if you're not piloting your own rig. All that makes its original Connected Car plans from 2009 seem a bit laughable -- check the original video for yourself after the break.
Continue reading Microsoft job posting hints at Connected Car strategy: Azure, Kinect and WP8
Microsoft job posting hints at Connected Car strategy: Azure, Kinect and WP8 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you've yet to try the Release Preview of Windows 8 for yourself, fear not, because along with our detailed impressions, Microsoft is catering to your trepidation with a series of blog entries on its MSDN site that explore the nitty-gritty details of its latest OS. In the latest installment, we're given an in-depth preview of the People app, a cloud-connected address book that promises to be one of the many centerpieces in the Metro environment. For starters, Windows Phone users are bound to feel right at home, as the address book relies on cloud services to populate the entries from sources such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Twitter. Not only does this ensure that one's address book is always accessible and up-to-date -- friend removals come to mind -- it also brings quick access to social feeds via the "What's new" section and lets you keep tabs on specific contacts via live tiles on the home screen.
By leveraging APIs known as contracts, Windows 8 makes the address book available to other apps such as Mail and Messaging, along with other programs written to take advantage of the service. One of the hurdles Microsoft is working to overcome with its cloud-connected services are the inevitable duplicate contacts. Currently, Windows 8 does a pretty good job of identifying and linking multiple accounts to one individual, but for the rare exceptions, the company will soon add the ability to manually edit and link various accounts to specific contacts. Naturally, with such a connected approach, security could be an issue for businesses, and for this reason, one's Exchange contacts will not be synced with their Microsoft account. In this scenario, users must manually add their Exchange accounts for each device they use. Take one look at the length of the MSDN blog entry and you'll be left wondering how Microsoft employees find time to code, but it makes for a worthwhile read.
Microsoft details the People app, its cloud-connected address book for Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Confused by Microsoft's array of internet/cloud-based services for Windows and Windows Phone? Then it looks like the company's been listening to you. In his latest blog post for the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft's Steven Sinofksy explains the company's new approach to cloud services in Windows 8 and Windows Phone, and confirms one big change: it's doing away with the Windows Live brand entirely. Replacing it is something simply called the Microsoft account, which you can use to both sign in to Microsoft's own services and tie to other third-party services like Twitter or Facebook. That one account can also be used to sign in on various devices and immediately have access to Microsoft's various services, which are now all definitely called "apps," and are also taking on a more unified approach across both Windows 8 and Windows Phone (as you can see in the chart above). In addition to the former Windows Live branded services, that includes the longstanding MSN Messenger, which will now simply be known as "Messaging." As usual, Sinofksy's described all those changes at some length -- hit the source link below for his full post.
Microsoft ditches Windows Live brand, explains new approach to cloud services originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 16:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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