Playing games on Kinect made me workout so much I was sweating after a few games. Kinect is a great way for people who spend their most of the time in front of computers, to keep in shape as it works in dual mode i.e. Stress buster + Health Care Taker. In fact, Microsoft is planning to launch aerobics games for Kinect which may definitely help people stay in shape without going to next door gym.

Kinect, may be advanced enough to read your lips or even hand gestures just like in the movie Minority Report. It may be able to read your emotional states, as well. This could give an opportunity to physically handicapped people like mute or deaf can use gestures to express their views which Kinect can decode and interpret in voice signals. This can also help people who are not much literate communicate or express themselves to those who do not understand their language. This may be particularly helpful for interpretation of regional language.

Kinecthesia, a project conceived by students at University of Pennsylvania features a Kinect that is wired to a set of motors, enabling the blind or visually impaired to navigate around a room (or even in an open space), using feedback via the motors in order to assess objects in their path. The user wears it like a belt, letting it sense objects in 3D space.

Researchers at the University of Missouri and TigerPlace, have found new ways to use Kinect to detect early signs of illness and risk of falling in seniors. They are using Kinect to monitor behavior and routine changes in patients. The changes they monitor can indicate increased risks for falls or early symptoms of illness. Also, they have developed a fall detection system using Doppler radar to recognize changes in walking, bending, and other body motions that may indicate onset risks of falls. Each body part creates a unique signature and the Doppler radar allows each body part to be recognized allowing for easier recognition of a fall.

Though each hack, modification is different in functionality, they serve the same premise: Helping people and making the world safer for older individuals, the one with less ability or one who are in rural areas. For the developing country like India, where rural population is in abundance, Kinect can be really an important technology that can help improve and shape people’s lives. The applications discussed above are just a preview of what we have got in just a single year of launch of Kinect the hardware which costs $150 and replaces $7000 in sensors, and within next few months we may see more innovative applications of this technology that can enrich lives of people not just in India but Worldwide.

                          

The mail says:

Microsoft will be discontinuing the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site at http://marketplace.windowsphone.com starting on July 15, 2011 and My Phone http://www.microsoft.com/myphone to Be Discontinued on August 7, 2011 beginning which the My Phone service will stop saving content from phones to the My Phone service.

After July 15, 2011, Windows Mobile users will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x phones via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site. However, the Windows Marketplace for Mobile service will continue to be available on phone.

Microsoft will begin moving My Phone content to Windows Live SkyDrive from August 7, 2011. Contacts, calendar entries, text messages and photos will be moved to SkyDrive and can be accessed by logging into SkyDrive using the Windows Live ID used for the My Phone service. Other content types, including videos, music, documents and favorites will not be moved from My Phone to SkyDrive and must be saved to local PC.

On October 6, 2011, the My Phone web site at http://www.microsoft.com/myphone will no longer be available. From this date, users will no longer be able to log in to the My Phone service to access their content stored to the My Phone service. Microsoft will continue to store My Phone content for one (1) year. They are even offering physical copies of My Phone content to be shipped to you upon request until October 5, 2012.

As per Microsoft the reasons behind killing these services,

Microsoft continues to invest in Windows Live as the principal and centralized cloud service for various Microsoft products. As is often the case, improved products and technology allow us to move in a forward direction, bringing fresh products and updated capabilities to customers.

I was a fan of My Phone service and am a current user on my win Mo 6.X series since over 18 months. I hope Microsoft gets an alternative for users for this application before killing it.

More Details here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2557520

                          

A 14 year old hacker on Call of Duty was just recruited by Microsoft. The 14 year old from Dublin, Ireland had broken into the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 servers last month and started a phishing scam to get user information. Microsoft had initially thought the attack was a part of the same attack against the PlayStation Network and issued an alert. Later they found the mastermind behind this breach. Word of the collaboration between Microsoft:

Paul Rellis delivered his key note address during Bank of Ireland Business Week. Rellis revealed that Microsoft planned to work with the Dublin teenager to develop his talent for legitimate purposes.

The name has not been divulged but it may soon be. however I am still skeptic if it is a move by Microsoft to promote the talent or to silently kill the crack into the Microsoft’s castle. However I still remember what once I read in a book as quoted by Bill Gates where he mentioned he himself was a Cracker and then turned into White hat stuff. May be this goes in favor of this 14 year old.

Source: tekgoblin

                          

With the world moving towards HTML 5 for Rich Media, Microsoft announced Silverlight 5 beta. Microsoft Silverlight is a powerful platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications and media experiences on the Web. Silverlight 5 builds on the foundation of Silverlight 4 for building business applications, premium media applications and applications that reach beyond the browser. Silverlight 5 introduces more than 40 new features, including support for running Silverlight applications with desktop features in the browser, dramatic video quality and performance improvements, and features that improve developer productivity. Picked up a few new features to come from Silverlight Website.

Silverlight 5 offers improved media support and rich UI capabilities:

• Hardware Decode and presentation of H.264 improve performance for lower-power devices to render high-definition video using GPU support.
• TrickPlay allows video to be played at different speeds and supports fast-forward and rewind. At up to twice the speed, audio pitch correction allows users to watch videos while preserving a normal audio pitch.
• Improved power awareness prevents the screen saver from being shown while watching video and allows the computer to sleep when video is not active.
• Remote-control support allows users to control media playback.
• Digital rights management advancements allow seamless switching between DRM media sources.

Silverlight 5 is Microsoft’s solution for building next-generation business applications:

• Silverlight 5 text (bottom) has improved clarity.
• Fluid user interface enables smoother animation within the UI. Inter-Layout Transitions allow developers to specify animations to apply when elements are added, removed or re-ordered within a layout. This provides smoother user experiences when, for example, items are inserted into a list.

Text improvements make it possible to build rich magazine-style text layouts:

• Multicolumn text and linked text container allow text to flow around other elements.
• Tracking/leading set precisely how far apart each character is for full creative control.
• Text clarity is improved with Pixel Snapping.
• Text layout performance is significantly improved.
• OpenType support has been enhanced.

Model View ViewModel (MVVM) and Databinding enhancements allow more work to be done more easily via XAML:

• Debugging support now allows breakpoints to be set on a binding, so you can step through binding failures.
• Implicit DataTemplates allow templates to be created across an application to support a particular type by default.
• Ancestor RelativeSource allows, for example, a DataTemplate to bind to a property on the control that contains it.
• Binding in style setters allows bindings to be used within styles to reference other properties.
• The DataContextChanged event is being introduced. Markup extensions allow code to be run at XAML parse time for both properties and event handlers, enabling cutting-edge MVVM support.

Networking and Windows Communication Foundation enhancements:

• Reduced network latency by using a background thread for networking.
• WS-Trust support: Security Assertion Markup Language authentication token.

Silverlight 5 performance improvements include:

• Reduced network latency by using a background thread for networking.
• XAML parser improvements that speed up startup and runtime performance.
• Support for 64-bit operating systems.

Graphics improvements:

• Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) accelerated 3-D application programming interface (API) provides rich graphics on the Web for building advanced data visualizations and rich user experience (UI).
• Immediate mode graphics API allows direct rendering to the GPU.
• Hardware acceleration is enabled in windowless mode with Internet Explorer 9.

The Silverlight 5 beta will be available sometime in 2011 H1, and more information will be available at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

                          

This fake software is distributed by a tactic commonly described as a “drive-by download” and shows up as a hotfix.exe or as an mstsc.exe file. Additionally, after the fake Microsoft Security Essentials software reports it cannot clean the claimed malware infection, it offers to install additional antimalware rogues (with names such as AntiSpySafeguard, Major Defense Kit, Peak Protection, Pest Detector and Red Cross). Lastly, this fake program will try to scare you into purchasing a product.

This software is a fake. Do not be fooled by this scam. This malware can potentially cause consumers and small business owners harm.

Once the simulated scan by this fake software completes, it will claim a solution was found and list products that can ‘clean’ the system (the listed products are fake removal tools). So anything mimicking Microsoft Security Essentials but asking for any sort of payment is clearly up to no good.

If you believe your machine has become infected, we encourage you to use Microsoft Security Essentials to check your PC for malware and to help remove them from your system.

Get virus-related assistance at no charge from Microsoft here: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/support/default.mspx.

For more information on this FakePAV please visit our encyclopedia entry at http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Threat/Encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?Name=Rogue%3aWin32%2fFakePAV. It contains a lot of information that may help answer questions about this rogue.

And remember: Microsoft does not charge for Microsoft Security Essentials. You can find the legitimate version of Microsoft Security Essentials at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials.

                          

Microsoft Press books, e-books, and newsletters can help you gain the technical information you need. Here is a quick summary post of some of recent giveaways at Microsoft Press :

Free ebook: Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (DRAFT Preview)

Free ebook: Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (DRAFT Preview II)

Code for “Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010” DRAFT ebooks

Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series (DRAFT Preview) (by Charles Petzold)

Free ebook: Own Your Future: Update Your Skills with Resources and Career Ideas from Microsoft

Free ebook: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions (Second Edition)

Free ebook: First Look Microsoft Office 2010

Free ebook: Windows 7 troubleshooting tips

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2

Free ebook: Deploying Windows 7, Essential Guidance

There’s going to be something in that list for you to enjoy, so enjoy !

                          

Microsoft has provided excellent resources for teachers. They may Watch videos, and download guides and e-books to inspire class and to help make the best use of tools and technology in their lessons.

Digital storytelling

Creating digital stories ignites a love of learning and is a powerful student-centered learning activity.

Free tools

Engage your students, energize a lesson plan, and save time using free tools you can download today.

The Microsoft Office System

Improve collaboration and increase productivity with Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Office Word, and Office OneNote.

Windows 7

Make everyday tasks easier, and take less time to complete them. You’ll quickly discover shortcuts to the things you use the most.

Windows Live Movie Maker

Enhance your lessons with movies you make in Windows Live Movie Maker. It’s fun and easy.

                          

This book is available in both XPS as well as PDF format.

Download : XPS format and PDF format

                          

Azure Deployment Internet Explorer Exchange Exchange Online Forefront Microsoft Online

Office Comm. Server Script Center Security SharePoint Server SQL Server System Center

Virtualization Windows Client Windows Mobile Windows Server 2008 Windows Server Terminal Svcs Windows SharePoint Services

Subscribe to the TechNet videos RSS feed to learn about new videos.

How-do-I Videos : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/cc138021.aspx

                          

• Unified tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance.
• Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.
• Fully automated Zero Touch Installation deployments by leveraging System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate and Windows deployment tools. For those without a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure, MDT leverages Windows deployment tools for Lite Touch Installation deployments.

Download here