Tech Today w/ Ken May

Microsoft’s Xbox One home-entertainment console, available later this year, has ties to Windows 8 and Windows Azure. [Read more]        

The Xbox One is a big deal for consoles, but Microsoft just made a massive content announcement at today’s reveal event — a live-action Halo TV series. As if the existence of such a television show weren’t enough, it turns out that 343 Industries is teaming up with renowned moviemaker Steven Spielberg to bring the world of Master Chief to life in serial form. Spielberg will be the executive producer and the show will provide “exclusive interactive Xbox One content,” whatever that means. Unfortunately, neither Microsoft nor Mr. Spielberg are telling when the show will actually be available for your eyeballs to view, but it is, most assuredly an actual thing . And just knowing that the follow-up to Halo: Forward Unto Dawn is coming is enough, right? Filed under: Gaming , HD , Microsoft Comments

It’s been eight years and nine days since Microsoft showed the world the Xbox 360 on May 12th, 2005. Today, we see what’s next. The Xbox One. Read more…        

The answer may be surprising to some, but according to leading security firm NSS Labs, there’s a new champ in town. NSS Labs tested the top 5 browsers on the market today; Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer 10, Mozilla Firefox 19 and Opera 12 to see how they would respond to “live” testing. Each browser was pointed to series 900+ URL’s that had known infections embeded in thier sites. At the end of testing, guess what? IE 10 FTW! Yeah, you read that right. IE 10 crushed everyone. IE 10 blocked a whopping 99.96% of the infested sites followed by Chrome at 83.16% (respectable), Safari at 10.15%, Firefox at 9.92% and Opera pulling up the rear at a measly 1.87% effective rate.

The Korean handset maker earned $5.1 billion of the $5.3 billion in global profits last quarter, says research firm Strategy Analytics. [Read more]        

One of the worst kept secrets rattling around Microsoft’s campus is Windows Blue , the forthcoming update to Windows 8 that addresses users’ bugbears about the OS. Now, Microsoft is officially rechristening the platform, and with a more staid name: Windows 8.1. Tami Reller, the CMO and CFO of Microsoft’s Windows Division made the big reveal during JP Morgan’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. The upgrade will be free and available from the home screen when it launches, while a preview version will be opened up to the public on June 26th at the beginning of Build 2013 . Unfortunately, Reller wouldn’t get any more specific about a formal release date, saying simply that it will be delivered “later in the calendar year.” The only clarification she would offer is, “we know when the holidays are.” As anticipated, the Windows 8.1 update will come to both the full version of the OS as well as the ARM-friendly RT. While we haven’t officially seen any sub-10-inch slates announced yet, it’s been rumored that 8.1 would enable smaller devices. Reller’s comments only backed up those expectations, when she suggested that Windows 8 is great for everything from “the smallest tablets ” to desktops. Filed under: Software , Microsoft Comments

Ballmer and Co. have just laid out what changes Office Web Apps will see over the next year and beyond, and it’s honing in on social features and more. Sure, the productivity suite already has collaborative document editing, but Microsoft is vowing to include real-time collaboration á la Google Drive , where users can see who’s currently working on a document while changes appear on the fly. The PowerPoint Web App is already packing the revamped experience, and the Office team promises that the real-time co-authoring will become faster as time goes on. The OS titan also says it’ll incorporate a range of other improvements, including simplified file management, shortening launch times and even a find and replace feature for the Word Web App. In addition to the tweaks, Microsoft revealed that Android tablets will finally be able to access its online suite of tools, as it’ll begin supporting the mobile Chrome browser . The firm’s given itself the loose timetable of “over the next year and beyond” for the feature rollout, so avid users should sit tight for now. Filed under: Software , Microsoft Comments Source: Office 365 Blog (Microsoft)

Microsoft has confirmed that “Windows Blue,” the code name for the next version of (or major update to) Windows, will arrive later this year. It’ll include changes based on feedback from the launch of Windows 8 (possibly the return of the Start Button), and requested by users. The Verge has the full story . Read more…        

For a long time now, our smartphones have been getting more and more, well, smart. They do more things. You probably haven’t beaten your phone at chess in years. And the race to cram increasingly granular, eventually useless, features into them has defined the past few years of phone making. Except the next big waypoint won’t be some technological marvel like week-long battery life . It’s something much simpler: Plain old chat. Read more…        

For a long time now, our smartphones have been getting more and more, well, smart. They do more things. You probably haven’t beaten your phone at chess in years. And the race to cram increasingly granular, eventually useless, features into them has defined the past few years of phone making. Except the next big waypoint won’t be some technological marvel like week-long battery life . It’s something much simpler: Plain old chat. Read more…