Even Microsoft knows that Windows Live Tiles have so much potential to be a lot better, especially on touchscreen devices . In fact, a group of the company’s researchers in Asia have apparently been working on making Live Tiles interactive. As you can see in the videos after the break, the experimental tiles expand when touched, showing you its contents right on the Start screen instead of launching the app. For instance, touching the mail app automatically shows a list of your emails in an expanded view, which looks very similar to an Android widget. That’s not all, though: the team has also designed a feature called Desktop Interactive Tile, which lists the programs open on desktop mode, making them easily accessible from the modern UI. This tile can be accessed from the sidebar on desktop mode, as well, providing an easy way to launch programs or attach files to emails. Alas, Microsoft took down the project’s page after briefly showcasing it on its website, but not before ZDNet managed to grab a copy of its official description: This project features an Interactive-Tile UI system that enables users to access and manipulate Live Tiles in an interactive way with touch gestures. Interactive Tile’s UI is responsive and flexible to an app’s content and function. Users can provide quick input to the Interactive Tile on the Start screen. With a perception of Start as an entrance page, Interactive Tiles were introduced to empower the start screen with an intermediate access level to applications. As one of the company’s experimental ventures, this might not make it to production at all. But if it does, we’d love to see how it’ll play with Windows 8.1’s upcoming classic Start menu . Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Mobile , Microsoft Comments Source: ZDNet
See the article here:
Microsoft tests Live Tiles you can use without leaving the Start screen
An anonymous reader writes “The Associated Press reports that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has put up a $250, 000 reward for ‘information leading to an arrest and conviction in a startling attack mounted nearly a year ago on telephone lines and the power grid in Silicon Valley.’ Besides cutting power lines, the attackers also cut AT&T fiber-optic phone lines, thereby denying some people access to 911, and fired shots into a PB&E substation, knocking out 17 transformers in Silicon Valley and causing $15 million in damage. As of this post, the perpetrators are still unidentified and continue to elude the FBI. Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday was brought before the Senate Energy Committee to explain why the FERC disseminated via insecure media a sensitive document describing where all the nation’s power grids are particularly sensitive to a physical attack. FERC responded with assurances that databases are currently being scrubbed and procedures being implemented to safeguard critical data.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
NFC, or Near-Field Communication , is useful for all sorts of things , but you can also use it to lock or unlock your PC when you sit down to work. The Electrodog Show , over at Instructables, shows us how do set it up. Read more… 
