You press your fingertips on the screen of your smartphone at least dozens of times every day, but if you are one of the few people who owns a Windows smartphone, pretty soon your phone may be able to reciprocate your touch. A Microsoft researcher is reportedly applying so-called haptics to add tactile sensations to touch screens to provide instant feedback to users’ touch. Whether to assist faster typing or guide the visually impaired, haptic feedback could potentially open up ways we interact with our digital gadgets.
Tag: microsoft
Foursquare Integrated Into Cortana, Windows’ Siri
Following its pivoting re-launch last week, location service Foursquare is once again trying something new, as it has reported been integrated into Cortana, the Windows Phone’s answer to Siri. Its addition now enables window phones carrying Cortana to make customizable, local recommendations based on your location, and presumably, your account history. Such integration fits with the new “local discovery” position that Foursquare took up since its recent update, while also puts it in direct contest with Yelp, which Siri enlists for the same function.
Microsoft To Lay Off Over 18,000 Jobs
Microsoft announced its plan today to “eliminate up to 18,000 jobs” over the next year, with some deep cuts from the businesses it acquired from Nokia. According to the report, about 12,500 of the jobs being eliminated will come from the Nokia groups, or from its overlap at Microsoft. Echoed by recent news that the company has killed off its plans for Nokia Android phones, this huge shake-up seems to indicate Microsoft’s plan to focus on improving its cloud and mobile services instead of wasting their efforts on hardware manufacture. Considering its competitors Apple and IBM are now teaming up to tackle the enterprise IT market that Microsoft currently dominates, such a repositioning could be proven timely in the long run.
Update: Microsoft is also reported to be closing the Xbox Entertainment Studios.
Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference
Microsoft’s E3 Conference can be defined more by what it didn’t say than what it did. There was no mention of the once requisite Kinect, social media integration or video. Instead, the tech giant focused on showcasing their major game partners like Halo 5 and Call of Duty which of course look stunning in the gameplay demos.
Xbox Unbundles Kinect
Xbox has announced that it will continue to sell Xbox One’s – it’s next generation gaming and living room console – but it’s going to do it at a reduced price, without the Kinect. The $499 bundle with the Kinect still does exist, but for the future users will be able to save $100 by leaving the Kinect behind. It’s potentially part of a system thought out by Microsoft to catch up with sales of the PS4, which has been outselling the Xbox console in part because of the price. The Kinect also hasn’t quite justified its additional $100, as there are few games that support it, and fewer users still who use it to genuinely navigate through Xbox’s UI; it’s faster and ultimately easier to pick up the controller. Though the Kinect might indeed represent the future of gesture control in gaming situations, the reality of the situation is that the technology isn’t quite perfect enough yet to be consumer facing. Microsoft is spurning that future for the present, it seems, and in the process will hope to simply get the device into as many living rooms as possible – without that, Microsoft will have no platform on which to launch further developments.
Xbox To Remove Gold Requirement For Netflix & Hulu
As has been rumored for some time, Xbox is going to remove the paywall for streaming media services on the gaming device. Xbox 360 and Xbox One users will no longer need a paid subscription to Xbox Live Gold to get to Netflix, Hulu, and others. Apparently Xbox will put some other services behind the paywall to make up for it, perhaps content like the new TV series that have been promised for months now. That said, this move is a clear concession to the fact that Xbox wants users to stay on their device while streaming in the living room, and having a paywall between a service that is free to use on other devices only served to drive consumers away. Free access to Netflix and Hulu means that Xbox is officially competing with both Nintendo and Sony for consumer access to games and streaming content, as well as against the host of media boxes that have begun to infiltrate more and more living rooms.
Xbox Originals To Debut This June
Microsoft has been hinting at several different original television projects for months – including an upcoming project with Steven Spielberg to make Halo a television series – and today gave us a look at how Microsoft’s original content would shake out. The plan is to launch the newly-minted Xbox Originals with the previously-announced live, interactive stream of Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 13th. Xbox owners will be able to switch vantage points and take part in Skype calls with artists backstage; this degree of user control and interactivity will be a prime feature of many of Xbox Original series as well. On that front, Microsoft promised a host of non-event-based content, including “Every Street United,” hosted by international soccer personalities Thierry henry and Edgar Davids, “Signal to Noise,” focused on the influence of technology on directors, and the promised “Halo” series. After looking at how cautiously Netflix and Amazon have eased into original content, Microsoft’s broad lineup is certainly the most ambitious off-the-bat launch in some time. It also is a fantastic ploy to keep living-room consumers off of their cable boxes and on their Xbox’s as much as possible.
Xbox Smartglass Now Universal Remote
Xbox Smartglass was – and indeed still remains – one of the most compelling second screen experiences available for living room entertainment systems. Though the second screen has faded as a trend to a certain extent, its potent potential nonetheless remains for brands and consumers as a way to maintain interest and engagement in the platform. Now, to ensure that users stay tuned into second screen experiences, Xbox announced that the Smartglass app will be able to act as a remote for the Xbox One. One of the key functions of the Xbox One is its OneGuide, which allows users to pick shows and moves, and transfer back and forth between games and apps within the console itself. The Smartglass app now seamlessly interfaces with the OneGuide, meaning that smartphones and other devices are now almost a part of the Xbox system itself, meaning less user distraction and increased engagement on the platform.
Microsoft & Linkin Park Partner On Project Spark
When Microsoft launched Project Spark last December, all anybody really knew was that it would allow gamers and developers to interact with custom games from home. Now, Linkin Park is teaming up with Microsoft to create a custom music video experience on the platform that users will be able to remix and recreate – however they like. Linkin Parks’ new single, “Guilty All the Same,” can be in effect played on the Xbox – the user plays as a character trying to escape a particular environment while the single plays in the background. Linkin Park is offering the experience for free on Xbox and Windows. From a marketing perspective, the platform provides brands with a creative way of reaching consumers on an interactive platform with a proven user base. If you’re looking for a way to bring your project to a younger, gaming market, this is an effective tool to get results.
Skype Comes To Outlook.com
Microsoft launched Skype for Outlook.com worldwide, a bold expansion and integration of the chat service into its email client to mount perhaps the first full-fledged challenge to email and chat monopoly of gmail and hangouts. Though the service arrived in specific parts of the world in August, Microsoft has only now adopted world-wide distribution. The feature allows you to connect with other Skype users directly from the Outlook.com inbox, and users can install a plugin that enables the Skype integration with Outlook’s account. The plugin now provides for almost universal browser and Mac support, as well as HD video calling so long as both users have HD compatible displays. As Skype continues to play a bigger role in Microsoft’s consumer-facing strategy, Microsoft is hoping to rope users – and thus eyeballs – into its modernized platforms. And with Skype on Microsoft’s side, it’s a very viable possibility.
