Dungeons & Dragons on a multi-touch surface, with support for other RPGs promised? Definitely neat stuff, and it also inspires “now why didn’t I think of that?” moments. A brief 3-minute demo of Surface Scapes follows!
Now if only the creators, students at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), can come out with a polished final product. I’m pretty sure Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), owners of Dungeons & Dragons, would love this. At the very least, WOTC can turn Surface Scapes into an expensive new toy designed to make die-hard fans spend even more.
Totally immersive and addictive? Check! Let’s …read more

Can hotmail users confirm this? According to Neowin, someone posted on pastebin a list of ten-thousand hotmail accounts—complete with corresponding passwords. The list is helpfully sorted from A to B, which for some reason according to Neowin, suggests that other lists are stored somewhere online.
Even if this report turns out to be false, it’s still a good reminder to change your web email password now, regardless of what service you’re using. For something that’s literally the foundation of the online existence of millions, it’s amazing how few practice good security and change it on a regular basis. For hotmail users, …read more

According to Gordon Bell, a researcher from Microsoft, the average human’s life requires approximately 350GB worth of data storage. This estimate was made during a Q&A as part of an article featuring his work, which basically involves storing every waking moment for digital posterity.
Personally, that seemed like a really low figure to me. “Only” 350GB to encompass the entire sum of our life experiences? Then again, if 3G users only consume around 211MB a month, and the average daily traffic of the internet is “mere” terrabytes (or thousands of gigabyes), then the figure makes sense. The amount of information we …read more

Seeing Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner croon about Apple’s legal boys calling him up about the Laptop Hunters Ads, I was reminded of this smug and dismissive rant by cockyjeremy. He typifies the I’m-better-than-you attitude of the Steve Jobs fans club.

I’ve got a few things to say about that!

True or false?

Yesterday saw the debut of the Office 2010 “teaser trailer”. Obviously, no Office 2010 movie’s scheduled; Microsoft was obviously trying a new way to promote its own product:
Opinions over the video online seem divided. Some wonder what the heck Microsoft was thinking, while others find the tongue-in-cheek presentation funny. Supporters have accused critics of not liking the Office 2010 trailer because it’s a Microsoft project.
Personally, I’m inclined to think that’s true. A lot of people have panned the movie for failing at humor, but some critics actually go out of their way to accuse Microsoft of wasting money. So why …read more

Basically, if you’ve bought a PC that came with certain versions of Vista installed, from June 26, 2009 to January 10, 2010, you get an upgrade to Windows 7 for free! According to the Microsoft Press Release:

“There is a lot of excitement for Windows 7 in the marketplace today. However, many consumers need a new Windows PC for school, work or home before October 22,” said Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows consumer marketing at Microsoft. “So starting June 26th, any customer who buys a PC from a participating computer maker or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or …read more

Announced today, the official pricing of Windows 7 is as follows:
Retail

Home Premium $199.99
Professional $299.99
Ultimate $319.99

Upgrade Packages

Home Premium $119.99
Professional $199.99
Ultimate $219.99

In other words, $120, $200, and $220 respectively. Before you get excited about the lower prices (when compared to Vista), remember that only 1% actually buy retail OS copies. The rest download bootleg copies from torrent sites get the OS when they buy a new computer.
Still, it’s great seeing Microsoft slashing their flagship product prices a bit. Maybe we’ll see less people call the company “M$” on online forums.
Some bad news for Windows XP users though: Windows 7 will insist on …read more

The $10,000 Internet Explorer 8 Promo: Follow clues laid down @tengrand_IE8 on Twitter, to find “a cleverly concealed webpage that only Internet Explorer 8 can view.” Seems straightforward enough, except the promo makes sure to ask you to “Ditch the web browser you’re using. If you try to find the $10,000 with Firefox, you’ll get nowhere.” The promo details are here.
Hopefully Microsoft is trying to promote how well IE8 properly displays web pages, being so faithful to existing web standards that it can reveal what competing browsers can’t. This so-called hidden website had better not be dependent on any special …read more

Since StatCounter started tracking Microsoft Bing’s online presence last June 1, the search engine has grabbed a market share of 5.56%—about 0.39% higher than Yahoo as of June 4.
No doubt, Microsoft’s marketing push has helped. I’m sure Bing has benefited from the relative success of Windows 7 to grab the attention of the more tech-minded, while more casual users probably try Bing out of curiosity.
It remains to be seen if Bing will maintain its momentum. Google after all retains its stranglehold on search at 87.66%. Yet it’s actually lost almost two percent market share over the June 1 – June …read more