Microsoft and Google end patent dispute over Xbox and smartphones

http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/03/microsoft_logo-100029828-gallery.jpg

Google and Microsoft have agreed to a settlement of sorts in a long-running patent dispute between the two tech giants. In all, the agreement will see around 20 lawsuits dropped in the U.S. and Germany. From Bloomberg:
"The companies pledged in a statement to work together in other ways related to intellectual property, including development of a royalty-free, video-compression technology to speed downloads, in an initiative that also involves Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. They will also lobby for specific rules on a unified patent system throughout Europe."
This puts to an end a patent fight that has been running since 2010, when Microsoft first accused Google's Android of using some of its patented technologies without paying royalties. Meanwhile, Motorola had been demanding royalties from Microsoft over patents used in the Xbox. This latest move seems to signal that we may be seeing a concerted effort for more cooperation, rather than litigation, between two of the world's largest tech firms.
Source: Bloomberg

Latest Surface Pro 3 firmware update finally gets a change log

http://cdn1.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/05/Surface-11.jpg


 
A couple of days ago, Microsoft released a new firmware update for the Surface Pro 3 tablet. Now the official Surface history page has published the change log for that update, showing what's new and improved with this latest firmware.
Here's the breakdown of what was included in the latest firmware download:
  • Surface Pro System Aggregator Firmware update (v3.9.650.0) improves booting time experience and enhances the system reliability while docked.
  • Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update (v15.68.9030.41) improves the wireless network connectivity and stability.
  • Surface Integration driver update (v2.0.1209.0) ensures when using a custom power plan that the selected plan will not revert to the default balanced power plan when installing a Windows Update.
  • Microsoft Docking Station Audio Device driver update (v1.31.35.10) improves audio experience when no external speakers are connected to a Surface Pro 3 Docking Station so that Surface Pro 3 internal speakers are used.
  • Management Engine Interface driver update (v11.0.0.1157) improves the system stability.
Microsoft does have a special note stating that after installing the firmware, the Surface Pro 3 will automatically restart. After that, the user must restart the tablet again to complete the firmware installation.

How to reduce the Windows 10 footprint on your computer

Many people when they see Windows 10, they only see the new features and visual changes. For sure, they notice the new Start menu, Cortana, the Action Center, apps, including the new Settings app. However, many users fail to see that Windows 10 brings a lot of changes and improvements under-the-hood as well.
If you ever noticed, Microsoft made a lot of changes in Windows 10, and now the operating system uses even less space than its predecessor, Windows 8.x. In part, the changes were made to allow Windows 10 to run on devices with limited space, such as tablets and laptops with small size solid-state drives.
Also, the software maker was able to reduce the footprint of Windows 10 thanks to that the operating system no longer requires nor uses a recovery image. In fact, just by eliminating the recovery image, users get close to 4GB of storage back.
For recovery, the operating system now uses the files already in the system – more specifically the files found in C:\Windows\winsxs. However, there is one more component -- Windows 10 also includes a new compression mechanism known as Compact OS. Using the new tool takes the Windows 10 files and puts them into a hidden container where they are compressed freeing up more space (keep in mind that this method also compresses pre-loaded desktop applications).
This new method is what technically replaces WIMBoot from Windows 8.1 that offered similar advantages. You can still use this tool in Windows 8.1, but compact OS is easier to configure and deploy, and the best part is that you can even use it after you have installed Windows 10.
Now, there are a number of ways in which you can configure your compact OS (check this TechNet article). However, in this guide we're only going to focus on how you can use the tool to reduce the footprint of Windows 10, after you have installed the operating system.
Warning: While the compression tool works very well, you will be modifying your operating system installation. As such proceed at your own risk. Furthermore, it's highly recommended to create a full backup before making any changes to your PC.
  1. Compact OS is a command line tool, so you need to open the Start menu, do a search Command Prompt, right-click it, and select Run as administrator.
  2. Type COMPACT.EXE /CompactOS:always and hit Enter.

 

Many people when they see Windows 10, they only see the new features and visual changes. For sure, they notice the new Start menu, Cortana, the Action Center, apps, including the new Settings app. However, many users fail to see that Windows 10 brings a lot of changes and improvements under-the-hood as well.
If you ever noticed, Microsoft made a lot of changes in Windows 10, and now the operating system uses even less space than its predecessor, Windows 8.x. In part, the changes were made to allow Windows 10 to run on devices with limited space, such as tablets and laptops with small size solid-state drives.
Also, the software maker was able to reduce the footprint of Windows 10 thanks to that the operating system no longer requires nor uses a recovery image. In fact, just by eliminating the recovery image, users get close to 4GB of storage back.
For recovery, the operating system now uses the files already in the system – more specifically the files found in C:\Windows\winsxs. However, there is one more component -- Windows 10 also includes a new compression mechanism known as Compact OS. Using the new tool takes the Windows 10 files and puts them into a hidden container where they are compressed freeing up more space (keep in mind that this method also compresses pre-loaded desktop applications).
This new method is what technically replaces WIMBoot from Windows 8.1 that offered similar advantages. You can still use this tool in Windows 8.1, but compact OS is easier to configure and deploy, and the best part is that you can even use it after you have installed Windows 10.
Now, there are a number of ways in which you can configure your compact OS (check this TechNet article). However, in this guide we're only going to focus on how you can use the tool to reduce the footprint of Windows 10, after you have installed the operating system.
Warning: While the compression tool works very well, you will be modifying your operating system installation. As such proceed at your own risk. Furthermore, it's highly recommended to create a full backup before making any changes to your PC.
  1. Compact OS is a command line tool, so you need to open the Start menu, do a search Command Prompt, right-click it, and select Run as administrator.
  2. Type COMPACT.EXE /CompactOS:always and hit Enter.

The tool will begin the process, which it will take anywhere from 10-20 minutes. Even better, you don't even need to restart your computer.
Here's a before and after image:

If you want to turn compression off, on step number 2, use the never switch, like this: COMPACT.EXE /CompactOS:never and hit Enter.
With the Windows 10 compression tool, you will be saving around a solid 2GB of storage space, but the amount of space will vary from system to system. While this might not seem like a lot of space for some users, if you are running the operating system on a device with limited storage, this could be a good amount of saved space.
In terms of performance, during my test I have not experienced any performance issues. Windows 10 and apps worked quite well as always.

Skype for Windows is rolling out new real-time translator features

Skype Windows Translator



After offering Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 users a Skype Translator preview app to try out, Microsoft now thinks the features are ready for prime time. The company is rolling out the real-time speech and text translation features in that preview to the regular Skype for Windows app over the next few weeks.
Skype spoke translator
When the features go live, Skype for Windows will be able to translate spoken words from six languages (English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish) along with 50 different text languages. Microsoft stated:
"Now, you have even more reasons to chat with people around the world – bringing together family, friends, and students. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities to do even more together across not only distances, but also languages. Built on world-class machine learning technology that gets smarter with usage, Skype Translator preview gets better the more it's used. Already, early users of the preview have helped it improve tremendously, and now with this broader release we are excited to see the additional progress we can make from expanded use."
Microsoft has not indicated when or if the translator features will be added to its many other Skype platforms.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

my reframce

use ReportServerTempDB select *from dbo.ChunkData INNER JOIN [ChunkSegmentMapping] on ChunkSegmentMapping.ChunkId = ChunkData.ChunkID INNER JOIN [PersistedStream] on PersistedStream.SessionID = ChunkData.SnapshotDataID use ReportServerTempDB select *from dbo.Segment select *from dbo.ChunkData alter procedure selectsubquery as declare @department varchar(50) begin --select *from dbo.Segment where SegmentId = (select *from  dbo.Segment where Content= @department) select * from SegmentId where emp_add =(select *  from dbo.Segment where Content =@department) end exec selectsubquery "1" create view selectall as select *from Segment select *from selectall drop view selectall drop procedure selectsubquery create index test_index on ChunkData(SnapshotDataID) drop index ChunkData.test_index select *from dbo.Segment create database testdbset create table userse (userid int ,name varchar(50)) drop table users select * from users --insert into use...
Read more

Angular UI Grid To Bind JSON Data

Image
1.Index.html <!doctype html> <html ng-app="app">   <head>     <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.16/angular.js"></script>     <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.16/angular-touch.js"></script>     <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.16/angular-animate.js"></script>     <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.16/angular-resource.js"></script>     <script src="http://ui-grid.info/docs/grunt-scripts/csv.js"></script>     <script src="http://ui-grid.info/docs/grunt-scripts/pdfmake.js"></script>     <script src="http://ui-grid.info/docs/grunt-scripts/vfs_fonts.js"></script>     <script src="http://ui-grid.info/release/ui-grid-unstable.js"></script>     <link rel=...
Read more
Image
Login And Sign Up Using Angular js with help of local storage 1.index.html <html ng-app='LogIn'> <head>     <meta charset="utf-8">     <meta http-equiv=="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">     <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">     <title>LOG IN</title>     <!-- styling css -->     <link href="assets/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />     <link href="assets/css/style.css" rel="stylesheet">     <link href="assets/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">     <!-- min scripts -->     <script src="assets/js/angular.min.js"></script>     <script src="assets/js/angular-route.min.js"></script>     <script src="assets/js/jquery.min.js"></script>   ...
Read more