Google rumored to launch its own TV set-top box under the Nexus brand next year

News: We haven't even seen the latest iteration of Google TV yet -- oops, sorry, that's "Android with Google services for TV" these days -- but a new rumor from The Information's Amir Efrati points to a Nexus-branded set-top box directly from Google in the first half of 2014. Previous rumors have noted TV-connected hardware focused on videoconferencing and gaming, and this new rumor also focuses on the latter, indicating that at this stage it runs Android game apps with a touchscreen controller, but doesn't carry live TV. The suggestion is that an "aggressively priced" gaming box (that also plays streaming internet video and is controlled by phone or tablet) would give Google the advertising foothold it's looking for on your family's TV screen.

The $35 Chromecast dongle has been well received and achieves many of those goals, but we'd like to see what Google could do to separate itself from competitors like Apple TV and Roku or Android-powered hardware like the Ouya -- not to mention the next-gen consoles from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. 

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engadget.com

Elop as Microsoft CEO may extend Office platforms; shut down Bing, Xbox: Report

News:  Nokia's former CEO, Stephen Elop, who according to recent reports is also in the running for the CEO position at Microsoft, might bring about a major change in the Redmond giant's strategy by bringing Office to more platforms, and shutting down the Bing search engine and Xbox gaming device unit, if given a chance to head the company, according to a new report.
 
Elop would offer Microsoft's popular Office apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint on other smartphone and tablet platforms, including Android and iOS, according to a report by Bloomberg that cites three people with knowledge of Elop's 'thinking' as the sources of this information.
 
It's worth pointing out that Microsoft currently offers the Office apps on Android and iOS smartphones with limited functionality and only to users who subscribe to its Office 365 service. It's not available for tablets other than the ones that run Windows, as Microsoft feels that Office is a USP of Windows-powered hardware including the Surface tablets that it makes.
 
The report further mentions that Elop would be open to selling or shutting down major business segments to focus on select products that are profitable. It cites the same people to elaborate that the former Nokia CEO could think about shutting down Microsoft's Bing search engine, and even consider selling businesses such as the Xbox if Elop feels that they were not very crucial for the company.

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NDTV

Steam now 65 million users strong as Valve makes a push for the living room

News: Valve's Steam service for PC distribution and sales has over 65 million users playing its over 3,000 games, the company announced this afternoon. That's a 30 percent increase (15 million accounts) over the last 12 months -- not too shabby! -- putting the service's userbase well above that of Microsoft's Xbox Live (which has 48 million, according to MS). Not quite the 110 million that belong to Sony's PlayStation Network, but not too shabby.

The new Steam number comes ahead of Valve's planned hardware beta, which intends to test the three main components of the company's big living room push:SteamOS, Steam Controller, and Steam Machines. The first of those components, SteamOS, is a Linux-based navigation solution for gaming PCs in the living room. While in can be installed on any PC (and it's free), it'll come installed on the physical Steam Machines that Valve ships to 300 beta participants (alongside the aforementioned Steam Controller). That said, at 65 million users, you have 0.0005 percent chance of being chosen for the beta. Best of luck with that!

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Engadget.com

Nokia's Chris Weber says there's no 'silver bullet' for Windows Phone success

With Gartner claiming Microsoft nibbled up just 3.3 percent of the smartphone market in Q2 this year, Nokia still has a long way to go to regain its mobile standing. Even with the handful of impressive products unveiled at Nokia World, Chris Weber, EVP of Sales and Marketing, agrees that there's still work to be done.

"I don't think there's a silver bullet," Weber said during an interview yesterday. "It's the portfolio, it's great marketing to make sure people are aware of the capabilities, and it's making sure that the apps are there."

The good news is Nokia now has a full device portfolio -- from the basic Lumia 520phone up to the full-fledged Lumia 2520 tablet -- thus crossing a range of price points, experiences and form factors. And with big names like Instagram, Vine and Flipboard joining Nokia's own "disruptive" apps, Weber said he's confident in Windows Phone's future.

Technology News in Hindi

engadget.com

Instagram will finally make its Windows Phone debut 'in the coming weeks

Hindi News:Third-party apps like 6tag not working for you as an acceptable Windows Phone Instagram client? We've been waiting a long time for the social network to acknowledge that it's working on an app for Microsoft's mobile OS, and your patience will now be rewarded: Instagram is finally coming to Windows Phone. Elop announced that the Facebook-owned company will launch its app in "the coming weeks," followed closely by Twitter's popular video-sharing service: Vine.

Source- Technology News in Hindi

engadget.com

Source- Technology News in Hindi

Hindi News: Don't act like you didn't know this was coming. Nokia has finally removed the see-through shroud covering its latest high-end device, known as the Lumia 1520, here at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi. Thing is, it's not like any Windows Phone you've gazed upon before -- it's a top of the line smartphone with Microsoft's third WP8 update and many of the best specs you can get. Not only is it the first 6-inch 1080p smartphone to run Windows Phone OS, it's also the first that's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 SoC (a quad-core chipset clocked at 2.2GHz). Nokia aims to sell the flagship for $750 unsubsidized later this year and it comes in four color options: red, white, black and yellow. The first two are glossy, while the latter two come with a matte finish.

Now that the new large smartphone is a reality, Nokia's given us some quality time with its pending flagship. If you've used or seen most Lumia devices in the past, the phone's overall design will not come as a surprise; it's dressed in Nokia's traditional unibody polycarbonate, though it looks like a Lumia 920 that got flattened with a mallet. That's not a bad thing, since it's 8.6mm thick (with the exception of the 1520's camera bump, which reminds us of the 925), but thanks to its 85.4mm-wide chassis, you'll need the phone to be as thin as possible to even think of using this as a one-handed device; it's three millimeters wider than the HTC One Max (and six millimeters wider than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3), which means the only reason it's even tolerable to hold with one hand is its thin profile and smooth curved edges.

Source- Technology News in Hindi

engadget.com

Nokia's incoming Windows Phone update will teach new Lumia 1520 tricks to old smartphones

Hindi News: Nokia, now under the Microsoft umbrella, will be combining an incoming Windows phone update with its own smartphone upgrades. Lumia Black is its name, and it'll bring the new, unified Nokia Camera, alongside Storyteller and Beamer apps found on the new Lumia 1520 and 1320, to existing Windows Phone 8 devices in its 920 series and 1020 smartphone -- soon. The company didn't specify a roll-out date, however. According to Elop: "This will happen later on, it won't happen immediately. Some of the key updates for Windows Phone are in GDR3, so the notifications... will come through across all devices and be combined together with the Black update."

Source- Technology News in Hindi

Xbox 360'sGames with Gold' becomes permanent, still no word on Xbox One version

Microsoft's Xbox 360 monthly free game promo, "Games with Gold," is being extended indefinitely. The program is essentially Microsoft's response on Xbox 360 to Sony's PlayStation Plus initiative on PlayStation 3 and Vita: members who pay the monthly or annual fee to the programs receive a variety of free games each month. Sony announced an extension of its program to its next game console, the PlayStation 4, back at E3 2013 -- anyone who already pays for PS Plus on PS3 or Vita is automatically a member on PS4.

Microsoft, however, won't say if "Games with Gold" will extend to its upcoming game console, the Xbox One."We're excited to announce we are extending Games with Gold for Xbox 360. We will share more details on the program soon. Stay tuned for our plans on Xbox One," a Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget. There are, of course, many other benefits to paying for an Xbox Live Gold account on the Xbox One, the least of which is the ability to play online multiplayer games.

Technology News in Hindi

engadget.com

Excel's Power Maps take bar graphs to some new and mildly interesting places

There are only so many ways one can juice up boring Excel data, but Microsoft's new Power Map Preview for Office 365 looks like it's up to the challenge. The 3D map visualizer has just graduated from "project" status with a handful of features sure to please number crunchers and map lovers alike. Power Map can automatically recognize geographical data in your spreadsheets -- from latitude and longitude coordinates to city or country names -- and plot associated values to points on a Bing map. You can also color code locales to see regional trends, switch between globe and flat map views and create "interactive" video tours for traversing your 3D spreadsheets. Those determined to turn raw numbers into eye candy will find the add-in on Microsoft's Download Center, and for an idea of what it can do, a sample video tour Redmond made earlier is located after the jump.

Source: News in Hindi

Valve unveils Steam Machines, a hardware beta for its living room game console

Valve announced Steam Machines today, a living room game console that launches at some point in 2014. The company also announced a hardware beta for its own version of the console; the beta starts this year. Today's news is the second of three planned announcements this week meant to expand the company's digital game distribution service, Steam. The company's issuing just 300 hardware prototypes in 2013 -- "free of charge, for testing" -- and you can enter to become one of those lucky 300 through your existing Steam account (an "eligibility quest" was added to Steam's quest page that will guide you through the process).

Valve says that a variety of "Steam Machines" -- the new name for the company's "Steambox," a living room gaming console for playing PC games -- will become available next year "made by different manufacturers," including Valve itself. The hardware beta, which we first told you about many moons ago, only includes Valve's version of the Steam Machine. All the machines will run SteamOS, the operating system that'll power Valve's big living room push (it was announced earlier this week). There aren't any specs given for the various devices. Valve says that, since there will be a few different options, there'll be "an array of specifications, price, and performance" when we learn more "soon." It sounds like the 300 beta testers can share their experience with the rest of us, though, as Valve's asking for loud, public feedback.

Apparently the beta will include "the nearly 3,000 games" that are available on Steam including the "hundreds already running natively on SteamOS." Everything else is streamable, says Valve. In terms of using a mouse-and-keyboard setup in your living room, Valve says that's an option, but "we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input."

Today's announcement is the second that further elucidates Valve's "Steambox" initiative; a program that's attempting to bring PC games to the living room, squarely aimed at competing with the big three entrenched game console manufacturers (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony). Both Microsoft and Sony have new game consoles launching this year in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, respectively.

A new countdown for the Valve's third Steam announcement kicked off just as today's expired, leaving another 48 hours before the final piece of news. Sounds like a controller of some form is in the works for Friday, which we'll have here for you as soon as it goes live. 

Source: News in Hindi

Microsoft launches surface 2 and surface 2 pro Tablets

माइक्रोसॉफ्ट ने लॉन्च की दो नई टैबलेट

नोकिया पर अपना कब्जा जमाने के कुछ ही दिन बाद माइक्रोसॉफ्ट ने दो नई टैबलेट लॉंच करने की घोषणा कर दी है। सरफेस 2 और सरफेस 2 प्रो नाम की इन दो टैबलेट के साथ-साथ माइक्त्रोसॉफ्ट इन दोनों टैबलेट से संबंधित आकर्षक असेसरी भी लॉंच करने जा रहा है। वाशिंगटन स्थित माइर्कोसॉफ्ट कॉर्पोरेशन विंडोज आरटी पर चलने वाली अपनी यह दोनों टैबलेट जल्द ही भारत में भी लॉंच कर देगी।

सरफेस 2 प्रो अभी तक सरफेस 2 प्रो को लैपटॉप डिवाइस की तरह प्रचारित किया जा रहा है। कंपनी की मानें तो सरफेस 2प्रो करीब 94% लैपटॉप से ज्यादा तेज चलने वाली टैबलेट है लेकिन सफलता की कसौटी को यह टैबलेट पार कर पाएगी या नहीं यह बात वक्त बीतने के साथ ही पता चल पाएगी। फीचर्स और खूबियों की बात करें तो सरफेस 2प्रो की खासियत निम्नलिखित बिंदुओं की सहायता से स्पष्ट की जा सकती है-
स्क्रीन-1080 पिक्सल रेजोल्यूशन वाली 10.6 इंच
प्रोसेसर-इंटेल कोर आइ5 हासवेल
रैम-4जीबी और 8 जीबी रैम में उपलब्ध
मेमोरी-8 गीबी रैम मॉडल में 128जीबी और 256 जीबी मेमोरी, 4 जीबी रैम मॉडल में 64जीबी मेमोरी
कनेक्टिविटी-यूएसबी 3.0, वाइ-फाइ, ब्लूटूथ, कनेक्शन
बैटरी-सरफेस प्रो से करीब 60-70 प्रतिशत अधिक
ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम-विंडोज 8.1
सरफेस 2
माइक्रोसॉफ्ट ने भले ही आरटी ब्रांडिंग बंद कर दी हो लेकिन ये सरफेस 2 टैबलेट विंडोज 8.1 के लेटेस्ट वर्जन ओएस पर काम करती है। कंपनी सरफेस2 को इस साल की सबसे उत्पादक टैबलेट करार दे रही है ऐसे में जाहिर है कंपनी इस टैबलेट के माध्यम से विंडोज आरटी को आम लोगों के लिए सहज बनाने का प्रयास कर रही है।
source- http://www.jagran.com/technology/microsoft-launches-surface-2-and-surface-2-pro-tablets-10749448.html

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 hands-on

Here it is: Microsoft's powerhouse Surface Pro 2. As we've seen and heard already, Microsoft's follow-up to the Surface Pro is thinner and considerably faster. We got our hands on a 256GB model to form some initial impressions and begin to determine whether this guy is worth the $899-and-up going rate, a $100 jump from the original Pro's pricing scheme. Head past the break to dive in.

Source: News in Hindi

Microsoft Surface 2 hands-on

Microsoft just announced the Surface 2, the successor to the original Surface RT tablet. So of course, we did exactly what any self-respecting Engadget editors would do: we muscled our way to the front of the demo area and made sure we were the first to get our hands on it. As you can see, we've got a gallery of hands-on shots below, as well as our first impressions.

Source: News in Hindi

Bing Boards introduce curated content, alliteration to search results

Bing might not yet have achieved true verb status, but it's definitely making all the right moves to get there. The latest twist on search? Curated content in search results. It's an experimental feature at the moment -- live in the US, but possibly not all territories just yet -- that delivers collections of images, videos or links relating to your query a-la Google's Knowledge Graph, but curated by a person (not an algorithm). Microsoft's testing the waters with a hand-picked selection of food and lifestyle bloggers right now, but hopes to expand this to more topics as the idea grows. Head to the more coverage link if you want to see what these cards might look like, in the meantime, time to dust off that abandoned spreadsheet blog?

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft


Source: Bing