Putting people first. #microsoft #google #privacy

Google has announced changes that have a big impact on the way privacy of its users is managed. Microsoft has published a response on the Offical Microsoft blog :

During the last week or so, there has been a fair amount of discussion about how Google is making some unpopular changes to some of its most popular products. You can see some of the concerns and worries about lack of choice and so on in these links.

When we read the coverage last week, it was clear people were honestly wrestling with the choices that had been made for them and were looking for options or alternatives.

The changes Google announced make it harder, not easier, for people to stay in control of their own information. We take a different approach – we work to keep you safe and secure online, to give you control over your data, and to offer you the choice of saving your information on your hard drive, in the cloud, or on both.

Source : Official Microsoft Blog

Kinect for Windows SDK released today

A new step in the way Kinect can be applied, in this case for (business) users. The SDK will allow developers to create solutions for Kinect combined with Windows machines. A whole new area of creative, and hopefully also very useful applications will emerge …

 

Source : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/

IT Showcase On: #Microsoft #Lync Deployment

 

Microsoft IT (MSIT) replaced PBX systems in seven sites located in thethree major regions. MSIT implemented user adoption strategies that resulted in a very successful deployment with high user satisfaction scores.

Source : IT Showcase On: Microsoft Lync Deployment

Just ordered a new #hughmacleod for the homeoffice ( @gapingvoid )

Reunited after many years #nokia #lumia800

Yesterday I received a new phone”upgrade”; I switched my SamSung device for a Nokia Lumia 800

And it had been a while since I last used one :

Good to be reunited with Nokia .. by far the coolest phone out there in my humble opinion …

CRN : Microsoft Office365–Best Cloud Application of 2011 #msonline #office365

CRN has published an overview of their ‘15 Best Product for 2011’. Office365 is their pick for best Cloud Application :

Cloud Application: Office 365

Microsoft launched its cloud-based service for Exchange, SharePoint and Lync -- with support for online versions of its Office franchise -- with ultra-competitive pricing starting at $6 per month per user. Enterprises can be up and running with full functionality within minutes, it can be managed in-house or remotely by resellers, and we found it to be uber-flexible and compelling. It’s the real deal, and it blows away Google Apps.

Remarkable also that other then the highlighted text no mention of Google product / service anywhere in the whole overview.

Source : CRN.com

Grote Xbox Live update vanaf vandaag #xbox360

Spannend, vanaf vandaag starten de updates voor de Xbox360 …

Office 365 Deployment Guide for Enterprises #msonline #office365

The Microsoft Office 365 Deployment Guide for Enterprises presents important deployment planning concepts and deployment procedures. The deployment guide is organized into the sections that provide specific types of information for specific types of deployment personnel in your organization.

Here is a quick overview of what you will find:

• Deployment Overview section. This material provides the high-level look at the deployment and organizational requirements to deploy Office 365. It has valuable information for your IT decision-makers, program managers, and technical implementation leads.
  
  
• Plan and Prepare sections. These sections describe the particular tasks and activities required to get ready and fully implement your Office 365 deployment. The tasks are generally presented in the order in which you address them during your deployment. Topics discussed in the Plan section generally reappear in the Prepare section with instructions for carrying out a task. The Plan and Prepare sections contain content that will interest specific types of technology experts in your organization.
  
  
• Migrate section. This section describes the tasks for moving your users’ mailboxes to the Office 365 environment so you can begin using the Office 365 as part of your production environment.

Download : Microsoft.com

Microsoft Future Vision Videos all in 1 list

I use the Microsoft Future Vision videos quite a lot in presentations and over the years Microsoft has produced a number of them. They are always very well received as they paint not only a futuristic, but in many cases also a realistic picture of how we work and play in the future. I can’t wait

A large number of Future Vision (and related) videos are now on Youtube so I put them in a list for you :

Wat als Microsoft Office een eeuw eerder beschikbaar was …

Leuke Videos van het Microsoft Office team die de kracht van het Microsoft platform goed laten zien .. Wat als ze een eeuw eerder beschikbaar waren ..

 

Er zijn nog meer leuke voorbeelden met Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote …

Decoded - Advertising campaign of Jay-Z's book with Bing Maps

The power of social and the power of search combines .. very cool .. Bing Bing Bing

Daar moet Google toch een beetje van wakker liggen

Bron: AllthingsD , screenshot van Microsoft’s Analyst meeting.

Windows8 … eindelijk

Na lang, lang wachten was het vandaag dan eindelijk zo ver … Windows8. Vanochtend vroeg kwam de developer Preview van WIndows 8 beschikbaar.

Zoals de aanduiding al aangeeft een ‘build’ van Windows die primair gericht is ontwikkelaars van Windows software. Maar stiekum is het toch wel een hele stabiele build die deels gebaseerd is op Windows 7 technologie, maar dan wel verbeterd en aangevuld met hele coole features.

Neem nu het opstartscherm :

Ik heb Windows8 geinstalleerd op een van mijn laptops, een Dell Adamo XPS, en het homescreen is zo mooi en intuitief vormgegeven dat je het elke keer wilt aanraken, maar ik moet het doen met de muis

Wat mij opvalt na een paar uurtjes ‘spelen’ :

• Installatie van de 64bit versie heb ik gedaan vanaf een bootable USB stick in minder dan 25 minuten
• Snelheid is erg goed
• Opstarten gaat inderdaad heel erg snel
• Deze developer build is erg stabile en ook vrij compleet
• Ik moet wennen aan de nieuwe startknop en mis de zoekfunctie daar en de mogelijkheid om applicaties direct op te starten
• Alle Windows7 compatible apps werken gewoon en ik heb mijn PC eigenlijk al weer helemaal zo ingericht als ik hem had op windows7, maar dan nu met Windows 8

Ik kan niet wachten op de beta versie, wat doorgaans betekent dat wij het binnen Microosft echt Mogen gaan ‘dogfooden’ op onze werk PCs …

O ja en ik kan ook niet wachten op Windows8 op een Windows Tablet te gaan gebruiken

iSheep eat your hart out

Microsoft GFS Datacenter Tour

This 10 min video provides a lot of information about Microsoft’s Datacenters :

This video will provide a deeper look at how Microsoft uses secure, reliable, scalable and efficient best practices to deliver over 200 cloud services to more than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries.It provides an understanding at how we view our end-to-end cloud strategy from an infrastructure perspective :

Windows Live Blog: 90% less spam in Hotmail, 15% less spam on the Internet

Today I came across this very nice price info. It clearly shows how much impact Hotmail has on the market and in this case also how it influences the reduction of spam on the internet overall.

Way back in 2006, Hotmail had a big spam problem, and we got a deservedly bad reputation for it. Since then, we’ve made amazing advances, and over the last few years, we’ve wrestled the spammers to the ground. Here’s a chart that shows the amount of Spam In The Inbox (SITI) for Hotmail users over the last several years, compared with the amount of spam on the Internet (expressed as a percentage of all email that is sent on the Internet).

The chart shows two things:

Hotmail keeps spam out of your Inbox
We’ve reduced the level of spam in Hotmail by 90% since its peak in 2006. Since last year, we’ve reduced what was left by another 40% (from 5% true SITI to 3% true SITI).

We’ve helped to reduce overall spam on the Internet
The percentage of spam on the Internet has actually declined 15% from its peak in 2008, due to a number of factors including the legal and technical disruptive action Microsoft has helped drive in the prosecution of spammers and the takedowns of botnets used to send spam. Botnets – collections of people’s malware-infected computers covertly operating under the remote control of a cybercriminal – are often used to send spam (and commit other online crimes). This video explains a little more about how botnets are used to send spam.