Microsoft Is Just Rolling Over

Microsoft made tablet computers a long time ago.

The iPad is a pretty cool device if you get over the closed platform, the Microsoft Courier was a prototype and concept device that had potential as well though.

A cool project. One that the masses of the Internet were able to get behind. A product that could compete head to head with the iPad.

Courier is dead. Microsoft has killed the project.

Don’t think they are working on something else cooler though… because they aren’t.

Even Microsoft’s biggest partner on tablet computing HP who was working on a new slate that was badass has pulled back. That HP Slate I posted pictures of before…. yeah it isn’t ever going to see the light of day.

Microsoft isn’t even trying at this point. They want you to think they are… they aren’t though. They are rolling over and I’m not even sure why.

The fighting amongst teams, the politics of the company, and the crushing of innovation by those inside the company is just taking Microsoft down a road that dead ends.

It really sucks because some of the coolest devices and software that has ever been created at the company looked like it had a chance. That chance seems to be gone now.

Live Messenger Updates Inbound

Windows Live Messenger has served as my messenger program of choice for quite some time.

The latest upgrades and updates to the application are going to be rolling out for the general public in the near future but I thought I’d give you all a sneak peek on what is certainly some new developments.

If you are looking for the newest version it is locked to Microsoft corporate users only at this time. Live IDs that aren’t approved will be unable to use the application for the time being but soon enough that will change

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Things you might have noticed: Themes that match Windows 7, new setup for sign in, Facebook chat, new social window, tabbed chat.

The Boss Button

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The NCAA March Madness website allows you to watch the games LIVE this year. (EPIC)

The NCAA March Madness website allows you to press the boss button to hide the fact you are watching said games. (+1)

The NCAA March Madness “boss button” brings up a screenshot of Powerpoint to make you look busy. The problem is the Powerpoint isn’t a genuine copy of Office

Why Internet Explorer 9 Actually Excites Me

Internet Explorer 9 is looking pretty good right now.

I’ll let these graphics do most of the talking for me but IE9 is the only browser right now that scored 100% on many W3C standards tests.

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I’m also pleased to see that my site actually renders properly in the newest version of Internet Explorer. Previous versions had some of my layout elements not working properly that required the use of an additional stylesheet whereas Internet Explorer 9 was able to use the standard style sheet and load everything properly.

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The java rendering is also a lot faster from Internet Explorer of the past

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All of these improvements are giving Internet Explorer the chance to fight back.

Windows 7 Phones

In the holiday season this year you can finally get your hands on a new phone that is designed for life in motion.

This phone brings a complete social experience to your home screen that is fully customizable. Each box is called a ’tile’ which can be fully customized to the different things that you want. The live tiles can be created to do what you want.

The phone directly intergrates with your favorite social networks such as Facebook. On my home screen I can actually add people to the home screen. For example I can add a good friend to my homescreen and then it fetches the picture for the home screen directly from Facebook or another social network and update the image of them automatically and allow me to quickly communicate with them or see the newest posts they’ve made online.

The most powerful thing about this home screen is just how much you can customize it to be YOUR experience.

One of my complaints about my iPhone has been lack of customization out of the box. Especially on the home screen.

I am a social person and I want my phone to be ready for my social life. I want all of my favorite things to come together in one spot and have a destination of my most common things coming together.

This is a MAJOR step forward for Microsoft and while many comparisons will be made to the iPhone I think it is important to note that this is a new experience.

I have contacts on Facebook, my Outlook contacts, Gmail and other locations. I want to have them all in one place. The people hub on Windows Phone finally brings all of these together.

This new series of phones are truly social. Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live, they all directly integrate in to the phone.

All of the phones are multi-touch, they all have three key hardware buttons including ‘Back’, the ‘Start’ button which brings you to your tiles quickly and a search button so you can quickly search your phone, the Internet, local maps, reviews, and applications.

The partners making the actual handsets are NOT allowed to make customizations to the hardware outside of the Microsoft specifications meaning the phone experience will be the same from company to company. This means the experience will finally be standard from phone to phone.

You also won’t find a bunch of crappy carrier applications, stickers, and bloatware loading these phones down as you’ve seen on most phones in the past.

The home screen on this phone will show tiles but if you swipe to the right you will see a list of your applications and other shortcuts.

A quick visit to the people hub will bring you a new view on contacts that is pretty exciting.

The first screen gives you a view of your recent contacts, swipe to the right and you will see all of your contacts. You can quickly search or jump by letter, and one more swipe to the right brings you the latest information, status posts, and aggregated data from a plethora of social networks.

People Hub with Various Swipes

The pictures hub is a really neat addition that brings photos from your PC, those taken on your phone, and photos from various social networks. This phone has all of those built in social networks so you can take photos and tag them, add captions and upload them to a social network with a single tap. Facebook is a large part of this phone series

Pictures Hub with Swipes

The new phones will all be XBOX Live enabled. Now you can bring your XBOX Live profile to your phone, earn achievements on your phone and even see new and interesting integrations with games on the XBOX. With the SDK that is being provided to developers it isn’t a far fetched idea to use your phone with your games. Someone calling you in the XBOX game? What if your phone actually “rang” with a fake call from the NPC in the XBOX game? That is a real possibility with the SDK being provided. It can happen likely if developers sign on to do so with plenty of help from Microsoft.

Games Hub with Swipes and XBOX Live

Each of these phones are also a Zune. Much like the XBOX Live integration you will be able to use these phones as dynamic media devices on par with the Zune HD.

Music+Video Hub with Swipes

I’m pretty excited about this new series of phones and I hope you will join me in discovering more about them.

Text me what you are thinking (260-693-7143), tell me on Twitter (@rayrayangel), leave me a comment here on this blog, look me up on Facebook or join me on the new Microsoft Windows Phone Backstage which is a new place to discuss the new  series. I’m RayRay