http://news.softpedia.com Softpedia News - Developing Projects Softpedia News en-us 2001 - 2012 Softpedia. All rights reserved. Tue, 29 May 2012 01:03:04 GMT Tue, 29 May 2012 01:03:04 GMT News http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 10 http://news.softpedia.com/base_img/softpedia_logo.gif http://news.softpedia.com http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-Powers-MirageTable-and-Augmented-Reality-Sandbox-Projects-269057.shtml Microsoft has been long touting the great possibilities that its Kinect sensor could provide, especially when combined with the Kinect for Windows SDK and a great idea. Two recent projects have come to light to demonstrate that things are indeed so.

The two projects, a Microsoft MirageTable and the Augmented Reality ... (read more)]]> Fri, 11 May 2012 13:27:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-Powers-MirageTable-and-Augmented-Reality-Sandbox-Projects-269057.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-Powers-MirageTable-and-Augmented-Reality-Sandbox-Projects-269057.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bing-and-Big-Think-Team-on-Humanizing-Technology-268473.shtml Technology has advanced significantly lately in the consumer area, but with side effects on people who grew dependent on it.

Bing and Big Think have partnered in an attempt to make some changes in this area, so as to make sure that people will keep their abilities to communicate with others.

They announced a new projec... (read more)]]> Wed, 9 May 2012 09:33:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bing-and-Big-Think-Team-on-Humanizing-Technology-268473.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bing-and-Big-Think-Team-on-Humanizing-Technology-268473.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-to-Enable-Windows-Phone-Apps-Launch-Faster-264867.shtml For some Windows Phone users, applications loaded on their devices might seem very sluggish, making the phone itself appear slow and unappealing.

If the latest technology that Microsoft Research is looking into will arrive on devices, this problem could easily be solved in users' advantage.

In fact, apps and games o... (read more)]]> Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:41:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-to-Enable-Windows-Phone-Apps-Launch-Faster-264867.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-to-Enable-Windows-Phone-Apps-Launch-Faster-264867.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Patents-Hand-Gestures-System-for-Tablet-PCs-264730.shtml Microsoft is becoming more and more interested in what tablet PCs have to offer to users, and the latest patent applications it filed confirm that.

One of these refers to a system of hand gestures that would allow users to get the most out of their devices.

The Redmond-based software giant appears set to bring rea... (read more)]]> Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:16:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Patents-Hand-Gestures-System-for-Tablet-PCs-264730.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Patents-Hand-Gestures-System-for-Tablet-PCs-264730.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Announces-This-Year-s-Global-Microsoft-Next-Finalists-262299.shtml Microsoft is getting ready to announce the 2012 Global Microsoft Next winners, and has just opened voting for “People’s Choice” award in this competition.

Driven by the idea of bringing innovation into people’s lives, the company kicked off the Microsoft Next competition, encouraging people to ... (read more)]]> Mon, 2 Apr 2012 12:26:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Announces-This-Year-s-Global-Microsoft-Next-Finalists-262299.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Announces-This-Year-s-Global-Microsoft-Next-Finalists-262299.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Research-Announces-ChronoZoom-s-Availability-258672.shtml Today, Microsoft Research announced the beta release of ChronoZoom, a place that brings together various pieces of information on the history of the universe.

Released in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley; Moscow State University; and the Outercurve Foundation, ChronoZoom arrives as a new tool for the s... (read more)]]> Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:04:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Research-Announces-ChronoZoom-s-Availability-258672.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Research-Announces-ChronoZoom-s-Availability-258672.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-s-High-Performance-Touch-Promises-Faster-Touchscreens-258149.shtml Microsoft has been investing big in touch-enabled devices lately, and it appears that it should not be too long before we see some results being delivered to the market.

In addition to designing the upcoming Windows 8 platform with optimizations for use on touch-enabled tablet PCs, the company is also working on ensu... (read more)]]> Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:59:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-s-High-Performance-Touch-Promises-Faster-Touchscreens-258149.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-s-High-Performance-Touch-Promises-Faster-Touchscreens-258149.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Research-s-TechFest-Kicks-Off-257223.shtml The latest technology advancements are on display now at Microsoft Research’s TechFest, which kicked off on March 6th.

Jaw-dropping projects are being demonstrated as part of this event, and Microsoft is pushing forth some of the most interesting of them.

The event is taking place on Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA, but ... (read more)]]> Wed, 7 Mar 2012 14:14:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Research-s-TechFest-Kicks-Off-257223.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Research-s-TechFest-Kicks-Off-257223.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Art-of-Touch-US-Grand-Prize-Winner-Announced-Rose-Saxena-249198.shtml Microsoft’s Art of Touch project managed to attract hundreds of visitors to give design a try and come up with unique content, all available with a few simple mouse gestures.

The project was launched back in October, and has become highly popular, considering the number of visitors.

Not to mention that M... (read more)]]> Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:14:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Art-of-Touch-US-Grand-Prize-Winner-Announced-Rose-Saxena-249198.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Art-of-Touch-US-Grand-Prize-Winner-Announced-Rose-Saxena-249198.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Ionut Arghire) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Behind-the-HoloDesk-from-Microsoft-Research-233853.shtml HoloDesk is an innovative project from the Sensors and Devices Group, part of the Computer-Mediated Living research area at Microsoft Research.

Steve Clayton, editor at Microsoft, shared the video on October 19, 2011, and some users might already be familiar with this amazing example of exploring of augmented reality.

Softp... (read more)]]> Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:29:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Behind-the-HoloDesk-from-Microsoft-Research-233853.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Behind-the-HoloDesk-from-Microsoft-Research-233853.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Amazing-Examples-of-Microsoft-Touch-Mouse-Innovation-232142.shtml The winning projects of the UIST Student Innovation Contest are amazing examples of the kind of innovation that can be built on top of the Microsoft Touch Mouse.

Prizes were offered for the following categories: most creative, most useful and best implemented. You will find a collection of links at the bottom of this article, to... (read more)]]> Thu, 3 Nov 2011 14:58:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Amazing-Examples-of-Microsoft-Touch-Mouse-Innovation-232142.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Amazing-Examples-of-Microsoft-Touch-Mouse-Innovation-232142.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Next-Gen-Projectors-Could-Augment-Environments-with-Digital-Content-231492.shtml Next-generation projectors could be used to augment environments with digital content to the point of entire rooms becoming immersive 3D computing spaces.

The evolution of Natural User Interfaces enables users to seamlessly control digital graphics that are projected on every surface, as a new demo for Augmented P... (read more)]]> Tue, 1 Nov 2011 18:31:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Next-Gen-Projectors-Could-Augment-Environments-with-Digital-Content-231492.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Next-Gen-Projectors-Could-Augment-Environments-with-Digital-Content-231492.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-8-Codename-Social-Analytics-Data-Taken-Offline-230335.shtml Just a day after codename “Social Analytics” made its debut, the new Microsoft Cloud service hosted under SQL Azure Labs, the software giant took down the data related to Windows 8.

While still in experimental stage, the Microsoft Codename “Social Analytics” Lab enabled early adopters to explore social da... (read more)]]> Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:40:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-8-Codename-Social-Analytics-Data-Taken-Offline-230335.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-8-Codename-Social-Analytics-Data-Taken-Offline-230335.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Project-Waterloo-Behavioral-Game-Theory-on-Social-Networking-Sites-223593.shtml Project Waterloo is the first game offered by the Research Games team in Microsoft Research, now live on Facebook.

Users familiar with “Colonel Blotto" style games already know all there’s to know to play Microsoft Research Project Waterloo.

Essentially, players need to challenge an adversary t... (read more)]]> Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:52:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Project-Waterloo-Behavioral-Game-Theory-on-Social-Networking-Sites-223593.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Project-Waterloo-Behavioral-Game-Theory-on-Social-Networking-Sites-223593.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Gathering-Feedback-on-Future-Versions-of-Visual-Studio-218835.shtml Microsoft is offering developers the chance to influence future versions of Visual Studio by providing feedback directly to the company.

There are already a few hundred ideas shared by devs on the Visual Studio UserVoice website that the Redmond company has set up to harvest input from those leveraging its developm... (read more)]]> Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:24:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Gathering-Feedback-on-Future-Versions-of-Visual-Studio-218835.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Gathering-Feedback-on-Future-Versions-of-Visual-Studio-218835.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Surface-NUI-DREAM-Controller-for-Robots-216599.shtml Researchers have been exploring scenarios in which Microsoft Surface can be leveraged as a robot command and control center, and it appears that they’re making real progress.

Make sure to watch the video embedded below in order to get an idea of how the natural user interface (NUI) capabilities of Microsoft Surface can be leve... (read more)]]> Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:31:02 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Surface-NUI-DREAM-Controller-for-Robots-216599.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Surface-NUI-DREAM-Controller-for-Robots-216599.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Free-non-Windows-Singularity-Microsoft-OS-Downloaded-over-300-000-Times-215862.shtml An operating system built in parallel with Windows 7 and that continues to be available even as Microsoft develops Windows 8 has been downloaded over 300,000 times.

Singularity is just one of the non-Windows platforms prototyped by Microsoft Research, with additional examples including Menlo and Barrelfish. read more)]]> Tue, 9 Aug 2011 11:01:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Free-non-Windows-Singularity-Microsoft-OS-Downloaded-over-300-000-Times-215862.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Free-non-Windows-Singularity-Microsoft-OS-Downloaded-over-300-000-Times-215862.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Microsoft-Operating-System-HomeOS-Already-Dogfooded-214343.shtml A new Microsoft operating system dubbed HomeOS is currently being dogfooded by early adopters, the software giant reveals.

As the official label implies, HomeOS is nothing more than a platform designed for the home, and OS focused on streamlining the management of technology in the household as well as make it easier for dev... (read more)]]> Mon, 1 Aug 2011 06:51:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Microsoft-Operating-System-HomeOS-Already-Dogfooded-214343.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Microsoft-Operating-System-HomeOS-Already-Dogfooded-214343.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-Beyond-Xbox-and-Windows-8-Heading-to-Smartphones-Laptops-213081.shtml Kinect, the standalone natural user interface sensor that provides controller-free experiences to Xbox 360 console owners is just at the start of its journey, at least this is what a top Microsoft executive is hinting.

The Redmond company is not exactly offering anything specific about its plans for the evolution of Ki... (read more)]]> Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:21:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-Beyond-Xbox-and-Windows-8-Heading-to-Smartphones-Laptops-213081.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-Beyond-Xbox-and-Windows-8-Heading-to-Smartphones-Laptops-213081.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Running-the-Non-Windows-Barrelfish-OS-on-the-Intel-Single-Chip-Cloud-Computer-212992.shtml Barrelfish OS, a Microsoft Research non-Windows prototype operating system has been tweaked to run on the Intel Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCC).

Softpedia readers that want to know more about what it took to get the platform to play nice with Intel SCC, as well as the actual experience of running the Barr... (read more)]]> Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:31:02 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Running-the-Non-Windows-Barrelfish-OS-on-the-Intel-Single-Chip-Cloud-Computer-212992.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Running-the-Non-Windows-Barrelfish-OS-on-the-Intel-Single-Chip-Cloud-Computer-212992.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-for-Robots-Released-Kinect-Services-for-RDS-2008-R3-211676.shtml Microsoft has released the first version of Kinect for robots, as a part of a new initiative designed to bridge the Xbox 360 NUI sensor with robotics projects.

Kinect Services for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 R3 is now available as a free download from Microsoft Research.

It’s no coincidence t... (read more)]]> Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:04:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-for-Robots-Released-Kinect-Services-for-RDS-2008-R3-211676.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kinect-for-Robots-Released-Kinect-Services-for-RDS-2008-R3-211676.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Download-New-Release-of-non-Windows-Barrelfish-OS-from-Microsoft-210877.shtml A new release of the Barrelfish operating system is now available for download to early adopters.

The Barrelfish platform is a prototype developed by ETH Zurich in collaboration with Microsoft Research. It’s important to underline that Barrelfish cannot be considered anything else but an experiment, at least for... (read more)]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:11:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Download-New-Release-of-non-Windows-Barrelfish-OS-from-Microsoft-210877.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Download-New-Release-of-non-Windows-Barrelfish-OS-from-Microsoft-210877.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Post-Windows-8-ServiceOS-vs-Chrome-OS-202888.shtml Has Microsoft already been at work on a Chrome OS rival platform, even before Google released its browser-based operating system?

The Mountain View-based search giant recently announced that Chrome OS will start being available to customers on the first Chromebooks as soon as next month, in June 2011.

What users get with Chrome OS i... (read more)]]> Fri, 27 May 2011 17:31:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Post-Windows-8-ServiceOS-vs-Chrome-OS-202888.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Post-Windows-8-ServiceOS-vs-Chrome-OS-202888.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-HTML5-Labs-Media-Capture-API-Prototype-Coming-Up-FileAPI-Updated-198777.shtml A new application programming interface prototype will be added to Microsoft’s HTML5 Labs in the coming weeks.

Introduced in December 2010, the HTML5 Labs are an online hub designed for developers to participate actively in prototyping the future of the web, with a focus on HTML5, of course.

read more)]]> Fri, 6 May 2011 08:39:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-HTML5-Labs-Media-Capture-API-Prototype-Coming-Up-FileAPI-Updated-198777.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-HTML5-Labs-Media-Capture-API-Prototype-Coming-Up-FileAPI-Updated-198777.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Home-Video-Tour-198334.shtml Want a sneak peek at integration of next generation technology into future households? Then Microsoft has just the right thing for you, and even if you can’t make it to the Redmond campus, videos are available of the company’s vision for the home of tomorrow.

The second video embedded below is the official Microsoft Home presentation, but the f... (read more)]]> Wed, 4 May 2011 10:49:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Home-Video-Tour-198334.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Home-Video-Tour-198334.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Read-Write-World-by-Bing-Augmented-Reality-by-Connecting-Geo-Linked-Media-and-Data-196401.shtml Read / Write World by Bing is an innovative project set to centralize and bring structure to disparate and random universe of web based content and information by identifying the connections between user-produced / shared files based on geographic location.

The end goal of Read / Write World was unvei... (read more)]]> Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:11:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Read-Write-World-by-Bing-Augmented-Reality-by-Connecting-Geo-Linked-Media-and-Data-196401.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Read-Write-World-by-Bing-Augmented-Reality-by-Connecting-Geo-Linked-Media-and-Data-196401.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Non-Windows-Drawbridge-OS-from-Microsoft-Tested-on-Windows-8-190444.shtml Drawbridge is another non-Windows operating system project from Microsoft Research that can be added to the list already containing initiatives such as Singularity and Menlo.

According to Ma-Config, the team behind Drawbridge is the same as the one that put together Singularity, under the leadership of Galen Hunt, Princip... (read more)]]> Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:37:00 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Non-Windows-Drawbridge-OS-from-Microsoft-Tested-on-Windows-8-190444.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Non-Windows-Drawbridge-OS-from-Microsoft-Tested-on-Windows-8-190444.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Project-Emporia-s-Matchbox-Understands-the-Web-more-like-a-Human-Might-189377.shtml Microsoft has opened up access to Project Emporia to the public, a FUSE Labs initiative introduced in the first half of 2010.

Users can now head over to the Project Emporia website or get the Windows Phone 7 application for their devices, and upgrade their current perspective over the social networking universe ... (read more)]]> Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:41:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Project-Emporia-s-Matchbox-Understands-the-Web-more-like-a-Human-Might-189377.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Project-Emporia-s-Matchbox-Understands-the-Web-more-like-a-Human-Might-189377.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kodu-Updated-with-Sharing-Capabilities-189385.shtml A new development milestone of Kodu is now available for download, enhanced with new capabilities designed to make it easier to share the worlds created with Microsoft’s visual programming language for games.

Early adopters already testing Kodu, will be able to download Build 1.0.111.0 for the PC and leverage the new Community option on t... (read more)]]> Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:01:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kodu-Updated-with-Sharing-Capabilities-189385.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/Kodu-Updated-with-Sharing-Capabilities-189385.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga) http://news.softpedia.com/news/NUIs-Now-in-Microsoft-Research-Tomorrow-Everywhere-188598.shtml Natural human – computer interaction models are becoming pervasive thanks mainly to the introduction of new form factors, but the NUIs of today are just a preview of things to come.

Speaking of previews, at TechFest 2011 in Redmond this week, Microsoft Research will showcase some projects that have yet to become actual product... (read more)]]> Wed, 9 Mar 2011 16:31:01 GMT Softpedia News - Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/NUIs-Now-in-Microsoft-Research-Tomorrow-Everywhere-188598.shtml Developing Projects http://news.softpedia.com/news/NUIs-Now-in-Microsoft-Research-Tomorrow-Everywhere-188598.shtml#review_zone Softpedia News (Marius Oiaga)