14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Xbox 360 was really a market hit because it recorded huge sales just after the official release date. The main attraction of the game console was represented by the quality it provides, allowing owners to feel an amazing gaming experience. As you probably know, Xbox 360 has some impressive components that can increase the quality of a certain game as well as the performance offered by the console. On Monday, Microsoft decided it's the time to release an upgrade for the game console because more and more developers are aiming to creating new names able to use all the Xbox resources.
The new upgrade concerns the memory unit included in Xbox 360 that will be increased to a 512MB card along with an improvement to the size limit of Xbox Live Arcade games from 50MB to 150MB. Microsoft plans to release the new memory unit on April 3, 2007 and sell it for $49.99 in North America and will preload it in the "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved" game for a limited period of time. Because it is meant to enhance the storage size of the game console, the software giant also sustained the original price of the 64MB memory unit will drop from $39.99 to $29.99.
"The new size limit offers developers increased flexibility and continued opportunities for innovative game development, while also ensuring that the millions of gamers on Xbox LIVE can continue to easily access, download and play all Xbox LIVE Arcade games on Xbox 360," said Chris Early, product unit manager for Xbox LIVE Arcade and Microsoft Casual Games at Microsoft. "If you take a look at current games like 'Roboblitz' and 'Small Arms,' it's clear that our developers deliver amazing game experiences within a compact size limit. Our focus is on continuing to provide developers with an environment that allows for the creation of cost-efficient games and that nurtures an artistic and creative approach to game development," it was mentioned in a press release.
As you surely know, Microsoft Excel is one of the most used tools on the computers from all around the world because it allows users to do complex calculations and design graphs using a simple spreadsheet interface. Because it is released by the software giant, the company tried to improve it to make the product even more powerful but, instead of releasing an updated solution, Microsoft created a brand new tool entitled Forecaster. The company announced on Tuesday that Forecaster 7.0 will be released to manufacturing on March 28, 2007 and will represent the perfect alternative for the Excel users that were looking for more power for their computer activities.
The application will be available in early April, Microsoft preparing to announce a Forecaster tour to take place April 16 - 20 in 20 cities from North America. The residents of New York, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit and many other cities will be able to buy the product for at least $8.500 for the server plus one user while every additional user costs $500.
"We'd like to be able to budget and do reforecasts more often, and we think Microsoft Forecaster 7.0 will make that possible," said MariAnne Woehrle, director of Information and Technology for CTAM, a nonprofit association for the cable industry based in Alexandria, Va. "This version makes it easier to keep everything in one place. So if something unforeseen happens, such as an invoice being a lot higher or lower than expected, we can immediately identify the issue, recognize the impact, then re-forecast it into our quarter and reflect it in our financial statements, and have a better picture. We're hoping it will save time on budgeting, too," Microsoft sustained in a press release.
It's obvious that Windows is the most popular operating system ever designed because it is currently installed on millions of computer in every corner of the world. Although Microsoft aims to be present on every computer of the world, the company now has another target: the mobile devices able to run Windows Mobile. On Wednesday, the internet giant Yahoo announced that its services will be available on millions of Windows Mobile handheld devices to provide owners instant access to the giant portal's products. Earlier this year, Yahoo announced several partnerships with Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and LG Electronics to develop new devices compatible with Yahoo's services.
"Yahoo said it had agreed to partner with Taiwan's High Tech Computer (HTC), the world's leading maker of mobile phones running on Windows Mobile software, to place Yahoo on virtually all recent and new models HTC makes. "Windows Mobile phone users tend to be consumers who are relatively data savvy," Ojas Rege, senior director of Yahoo's mobile phone business, said in an interview. "They are a pretty attractive group of users both from the standpoint of being early adopters of new services and in terms of advertising demographics," News.com reported.
Windows OneCare Live was especially designed by Microsoft to enhance the security system on Windows Vista, the last version of the operating system designed by the software giant. Although Vista is regarded as the most secure edition of Windows, Microsoft sustained it's better to remain secure by using an additional tool, OneCare representing the most powerful utility for the operating system. Sometimes, the products developed by the software companies are overvalued, OneCare Live representing just an example after the security application failed one more antivirus test conducted by Av-Comparatives.
"Microsoft responded to OneCare's certification failure on Wednesday, arguing that it is "looking closely at the methodology and results of the test to ensure that Windows Live OneCare performs better in future tests and (to) determine whether any learnings from these tests can be used to improve our services as part of our ongoing work to continually enhance Windows Live OneCare to ensure the highest level of protection and service that we can provide our customers," News.com said in an article published on Thursday.
On Friday, Microsoft announced a new file format able to work with its Windows operating system that will be able to enhance the qualities of a digital image made by professional photographers. The HD photo format is more advanced than JPEG because it allows an increased quality bundled with a reduced size. At this time, the new extension is compatible with Windows Vista through the Windows Image Component codec, but can be also used on Windows XP or on Windows 2003 platforms using a simple utility available as a free download. The software giant also released a set of Photoshop plugins to add interoperability with the new format that is currently available as a beta and can be downloaded for free for Windows and Mac platforms.
"With HD Photo, we're taking a new approach to creating and editing photos that simply isn't available to photographers with today's formats," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Consumer Media Technology Group at Microsoft. "HD Photo fully preserves the original image fidelity with high dynamic range while still allowing for significant improvement in compression size," it is mentioned in a press release.
