Microsoft Can't Decide If It's Giving Away Windows 10 For Free

In an announcement on Friday, Microsoft dropped the unusually generous news that it is giving away free copies of Windows 10 to anyone who participates in the beta Insider Program for Redmond's latest OS. Sound a little too good to be true? You bet.

As noted by Ars Technica, Microsoft has since sneakily updated its blog post announcing the move, changing some crucial language:

Previously it said that signed up members of the Insider Program running a preview version would "receive the Windows 10 final release build and remain activated." Now it says only that they will "receive the Windows 10 final release build."

Moreover, Microsoft added some clarifying language, saying that "It's important to note that only people running Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 as part of the free upgrade offer."

Seems pretty clear, then: only users upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 will get a free upgrade, which is in line with Microsoft's previous announcements.

But that's not all! On Twitter this evening, Microsoft exec Gabriel Aul stated in no uncertain terms that anyone with a prerelease build of Windows 10 (with a registered Microsoft Account) would remain activated on the final version of Windows 10.

@ZacB_ @joebelfiore Yes, as long as running a prerelease build connected with registered MSA:http://t.co/vlaGyfwzbr

June 21, 2015

Reading between the lines, it seems that Microsoft might be providing a way for individual users to upgrade, without making the whole process above board. Microsoft makes most of its Windows money off businesses and OEMs, the companies that sell new PCs already running a (licensed, paid-for) version of Windows. The wording in the latest blog post implies that upgrading to full-fat Windows 10 will work; it just won't be officially sanctioned by Microsoft, meaning that businesses will still have to pony up for the upgrade.

We reached out to Microsoft for comment, and will update if anyone manages to clarify this mess.

[Microsoft, Ars Technica]

List of smartphones in india eligible for Windows 10 technical preview

The Windows 10 update for smartphones, tablets and personal computers will bring every device to a common platform for providing a unified experience. So it is essential that the update is devoid of issues. In order to be thorough with the pre-testing, Microsoft has released a list of smartphones which will be eligible for getting the next build version of the Windows 10 technical preview.

When Microsoft first released the technical preview, only a handful of devices were covered under it and even the likes of the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930 were skipped. Microsoft then released a statement that it was working on adding more devices to the preview lineup. The company was working on ‘partition stitching’  till now which would allow for re-sizing of the system partition. This has allowed a lot more devices to be added to the list of devices eligible for a technical preview.

List of smartphones in india eligible for Windows 10 technical preview

• Microsoft Lumia 430
• Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM
• Nokia Lumia 520
• Nokia Lumia 525
• Nokia Lumia 530 Dual SIM
• Microsoft Lumia 532 Dual SIM
• Microsoft Lumia 535 Dual SIM
• Nokia Lumia 620
• Nokia Lumia 625
• Nokia Lumia 630
• Nokia Lumia 630 Dual SIM
• Nokia Lumia 638
• Microsoft Lumia 640 Dual SIM
• Nokia Lumia 720
• Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM
• Nokia Lumia 735
• Nokia Lumia 820
• Nokia Lumia 830
• Nokia Lumia 920
• Nokia Lumia 925
• Nokia Lumia 1020
• Nokia Lumia 1320
• Nokia Lumia 1520

The company has further stated that a device may be pulled out from the list of supported devices if a bug is discovered at a later stage. Just in case you notice that a device has not made it to the list of devices as of now (namely the Lumia 520), it may get added to the list later on. Microsoft hasn’t disclosed as to when the next build version of the update is coming, but we can expect it to start rolling out in the next few weeks.

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Microsoft Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL Announced

Microsoft has launched the Lumia 640 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona. The smartphone comes with a 5-inch HD ClearBlack IPS display (1280 x 720 pixels) with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, and is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor. It runs Windows Phone 8.1 and sports an 8-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash along with a 1-megapixel front camera. It has 8GB of internal storage, further expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. It supports connectivity options such as 4G LTE / 3G (depending on the variant), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS / aGPS.

The phone will be available in Single SIM / Dual SIM 4G variants and Dual SIM 3G variant. Also, Microsoft is offering 1 year of free office 365 subscription with 1TB of One Drive storage and up to 60 minutes of free international Skype calls per month. It will be available in orange, cyan, matte black, and white colors for a price of 139 Euros (US$ 155 / Rs. 9,625 approximately) for the 3G model and 159 Euros (US$ 177 / Rs. 11,000 approximately) for the LTE variant, without taxes and subsidies. Microsoft would start rolling it globally from April.

At the event, Microsoft also unveiled the Lumia 640 XL, which is a larger variant of the Lumia 640 smartphone. The device features a 5.7-inch HD display ClearBlack IPS display (1280 x 720 pixels) with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, a 13-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera. It is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and runs Windows Phone 8.1. It will also be available in Single SIM / Dual SIM 4G variants and Dual SIM 3G variant. It has 8GB of internal storage, further expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. It supports connectivity options such as 4G LTE / 3G (depending on the variant), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS / aGPS.

The Microsoft Lumia 640 XL will come in orange, cyan, black, and white color options. The device is priced at 189 Euros (US$ 211 / Rs. 13,080 approximately) for the 3G variant and 219 Euros (US$245 / Rs. 15,160 approximately) for the LTE variant, without taxes and subsidies. Microsoft would start rolling it globally from March. Here also, Microsoft is offering 1 year of free office 365 subscription with 1TB of One Drive storage and up to 60 minutes of free international Skype calls per month.

Microsoft Lumia 640 specifications

• 5-inch HD ClearBlack IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card
• Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, upgradable to Windows 10
• 8MP rear camera with LED flash and 1MP front camera
• 4G LTE / 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS / aGPS
• 2,500 mAh battery

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL specifications

• 5.7-inch HD ClearBlack IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card
• Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, upgradable to Windows 10
• 13MP rear camera with LED flash and 5MP front camera
• 4G LTE / 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS / aGPS
• 3,000 mAh battery

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Microsoft confirms Windows Phone 10 update for low-end Lumia phones

One of the most determined project of Microsoft this year is now witnessing few contours of an official plan. Vice President of Microsoft Operating Systems Group, Joe Belfiore, tweeted to confirm that Windows 10 update for phones will also be rolled out to 512MB RAM Lumia devices. However, few features might be different from the original design depending on the phones, and the roll out might also be variable in nature to many phones. It means that some Lumia phones might not be able to utilize all the features of the updated OS owing to hardware constraints.

While speaking about the Technical Preview build of Windows Phone 10, Belfiore said, “It will be made available to Microsoft Insiders by this month. Also, we’re on track for Insider build coming in February as Terry said at our 1/21 event. We need to complete internal testing first, hang in!” he elaborated. Although, no specific timeline was revealed for the preview to be rolled out to the members.

Belfiore stated that only few phones in the series will be receiving the preview build of Windows Phone 10 whenever it is released to the Windows Insiders. He also confirmed that the Nokia Lumia 520 will support the preview build, but did not reveal that what other handsets are going to support the preview build. The Lumia 520 is one of the most popular Windows Phone device, as it has a market share of around one-third of all the Windows Phones combined.

The screenshot leaks of the Technical Preview build unleashed many new features. The leak has revealed a new interface, which can match the desktop and tablet version, along with an advanced recording app, a redesigned Alarms app, a well detailed Setting menu.

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Microsoft Lumia 435 launched in India for Rs 5,999

In continuation with it’s aggressive expansion plans into the affordable smartphone market, Microsoft today announced the Lumia 435 dual-SIM phone, which is the most affordable Windows Phone available in India. Running the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS, the device is priced at Rs. 5,999 and is likely to get the Lumia Denim firmware update soon.
Though aimed at the entry level market, the device packs some impressive hardware housing a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302 GPU. It has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable internal storage and a 4-inch LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480.

Lumia-435-
On the camera front, the phone sports a 2-megapixel camera at the rear and a VGA front camera. The device also comes with a microSD card should there be need for additional storage space. The device is powered by a 1,560 mAh battery, which is touted by the company to deliver up to 11.7 hours of talk time on a full charge.
The Lumia 435 Dual SIM is expected to raise the bar set by Microsoft with the success of Lumia 520 in the affordable smartphone category.
Lumia 435 Dual SIM specifications:
•4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) WVGA display
•1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302 GPU
•1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, up to 128GB expandable memory with microSD
•Windows Phone 8.1 OS with Lumia Denim
•2MP fixed focus rear camera and VGA front-facing camera
•11.7 mm thick and weighs 134.1 grams
•Dual SIM, 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS / aGPS
•1,560 mAh battery with up to 11.7 h talk time.


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Next Windows 10 for smartphones will reportedly run on ARM as well as Intel processors

Microsoft made some important announcements in September about its upcoming operating system, Windows 10. The company announced that it will drop the ‘Phone’ from Windows Phone to make it Windows 10 as its upcoming operating system will be a single, unified platform which will support all types of devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, hybrid devices, and wearables. Right now, no one knows about the features of Windows 10 for smartphones but Microsoft will reveal more details about it in January 2015 during a press event.

Last month, Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet reported that Microsoft has already started working on Windows 10 for smartphones internally. Later, Microsoft announced that it will provide Windows 10 update to all the Lumia smartphones running Windows 8.1. According to a new report from ZDNet, it appears that Windows 10 will run on ARM as well as Intel based processors, which exactly how Microsoft will be able to run the same operating system on all the platforms. This also means that we could finally see Windows 10 based smartphones with Intel processors based on x86 architecture.

“I’m hearing that Microsoft is still testing the mobile SKU on a very limited basis within the Operating Systems Group at this point. I would think the mobile SKU might need to be dogfooded internally at Microsoft more widely before Microsoft releases it to external testers. But once Microsoft does deliver the Windows 10 mobile bits to testers, ongoing and regular updates will be coming at least monthly, according to sources.”

– Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet.

Currently, there are many brands out there who have launched Windows 8.1 based tablets at very cheap prices featuring Intel Atom processors. This might hint towards even cheaper Windows 10 based smartphones in the future which might give it a tough fight to Android smartphones in the low-end and mid-range segment. Intel’s best smartphone processor right now is the Atom Z3580 which combines 2.33GHz quad-core 64-bit CPU, PowerVR G6430 GPU and can support up to 4GB RAM.

Via | Source

Microsoft defends opening Hotmail account of blogger in espionage case

Company says it cracked open the Hotmail account of an unnamed blogger involved in a Windows 8 espionage case in part because he was selling Windows Server activation keys.

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Microsoft aims to power up PC and mobile games with DirectX 12

The time for teasing is over. Today at GDC, Microsoft pulled back the curtain on DirectX 12, a shiny new edition of its venerable graphics APIs that some lucky developers can start mucking around with later this year. Microsoft Graphics Development Manager Anuj Gosalia talked up a storm out in SF: he noted that DX12 would (among other things) yield performance boosts across all of Microsoft's platforms, including Xbox One and Windows Phone.

That mobile angle is an awfully tantalizing one considering how tightly Windows Phone integrates with Xbox Live. Polygon reports that DX12 should improve how much power those games suck, and will make porting content from consoles and PCs to mobile devices easier. On the PC side of things, game developers will also get lower-level access to hardware to help keep graphical performance as snappy as possible. Throw in smarter shuffling of processing tasks to multiple CPU cores to keep any one from getting bogged down, and you've got yourself a tantalizing little development package. There's a decent chance you won't even have to shell out for new hardware either, since Microsoft says some 80% of the gaming PCs being sold on the market right now will play nice with DirectX 12 games. Just don't expect to nab them very soon though -- those titles are expected to hit shelves in time for the 2015 holiday season. 0 Comments Share

Source: DirectX Developer Blog

More Coverage: Polygon

Tags: api, directx, directx12, GDC, gdc14, gdc2014, graphics, microsoft, pc, pcgaming, windowsphone, xboxone Next: castAR's vision of immersive gaming gets closer to final production
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Microsoft takes on the 'free' OS

The company is inching toward offering its Windows Phone operating system gratis in some markets. Does that portend big changes in Microsoft's strategy? A longtime Microsoft analyst weighs in.

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Microsoft to offer a more personal version of Office 365

Microsoft has a hit on its hands with what it currently offers as Office 365 Home Premium. For $99 per year, you could have the entire suite of Microsoft Office on up to 5 PCs or Apple computers, plus up to 5 mobile devices.

On top of that, you received an extra 20GB of storage on OneDrive for up to 5 users each and 60 minutes of Skype calls per month. The Office suite is installed and stays up to date across all apps, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Outlook and arguably the best Microsoft application in existence, OneNote.

For the individual without a lot of stuff though, all those extras do not pose a lot of value for $99 per year. Today, Microsoft announced it was going to be offering new option, Office 365 Personal. With Office 365 Personal, you get everything that Office 365 Home Premium (soon to be rebranded as Office 365 Home), but for one computer, plus one tablet.

That subscription will cost $69.99 per year (or $6.99 per month). You still get the extra OneDrive space, Skype calls, plus the whole Office suite of applications. That means if you have a regular PC at home, and have a Microsoft Surface Pro for a tablet (or other tablet running full Windows), that tablet is eligible for this offer. Basically getting you two computers set up with Office for $70 per year.

Buying the suite as offered by Office 365 costs $400 by itself, making Office 365 a great deal for those with tablets running a full version of Windows, but hesitant to spend so much on a single license for productivity. Look for Office 365 Personal to be available this spring.

sources: Office blog via WPCentral
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Microsoft doesn't want Android and Windows dual-OS devices to happen either

Since the beginning of the year,various manufacturers have been pitching dual-OS devices that bootAndroid and Windows 8 (desktop and Windows Phone). Yesterday, Huaweiannounced that it will introduce a dual-OS handset soon. Beforethat, ASUS was to ship its Transformer Duet TD300 dual-bootingtablet, but it was stalled in its tracks by Google. This revealed a serious obstacle for the dual-OS concept - industry pressure.

So far, our assessment of the situationwas that dual-OS devices represent a chance for Microsoft topiggyback on Android's popularity to increase Windows' market share,which is something Google would understandably object to. But thereality might be different. According to analyst Patrick Moore, whileGoogle "wants all-Android devices", Microsoft too wouldrather have all-Windows devices, because dual-OS will let Androidenter the Windows-dominated PC market. Google is already trying tocompete in this space with its Chromebook laptops, and dual-bootingdevices could give them another, even more comfortable entry pointinto a territory that Microsoft wants for itself.

Allegedly, an internal ASUS memo aboutits 2013 AIO PC dual-OS desktop computers revealed that Microsoft has anew policy of not supporting dual-booting products, which is why theTaiwanese company will stop selling them. As a whole, the fate of future dual-booting devicesis unclear at this point. Although Chinese and Taiwanese vendors arequite interested in the concept, and Intel has done a lot of technological work tobring it to fruition, it seems that Google and Microsoft have thelast word on it, for now.

source: WSJ

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Your bank will pay Microsoft to keep running its ATMs

Believe it or not, roughly 95 percent of ATMs in the world are still running Windows XP -- and that's about to become an expensive problem. Machine designer NCR says that only a third of banks will upgrade their ATMs to a newer OS before official XP support ends on April 8th, leaving many institutions little choice but to pay Microsoft for an extended contract if they still want support. At least some banks plan to update, but they're facing both technician backlogs and steep transition costs; estimates suggest the big UK firms might pay up to £60 million ($100 million) each to make the leap. Whether or not your bank joins the modern era, you shouldn't be surprised if you end up footing some of the bill.

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Windows Phone 8.1's Microsoft Camera app demoed on video

As you may have heard, Windows Phone 8.1 is going to be a major upgrade over the current Windows Phone 8 OS. Microsoft will most likely reveal everything there is to know about WP 8.1 next month at its Build Conference (April 2 - April 4). Until then, we’re still relying on leaks to provide new details about the upcoming iteration of what is now the world’s third most popular smartphone OS.

The latest leak comes in form of a 3-minute video, and allows us to take a look at the new Microsoft Camera app that will apparently debut on Windows Phone 8.1. The new app resembles Nokia’s Camera app - which probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, since Microsoft is getting closer to completing the acquisition of Nokia’s handset business. The UI has a fresh, clean design, providing shortcuts to different camera settings, and letting you easily choose between photo mode, burst mode, or video mode. Take a look at the leaked video below, and also check out our Windows Phone 8.1 feature overview while you're here.



source: UnleashThePhones Share: Discuss12 Tweet

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Microsoft Said To Be Considering A Free Version Of Windows 8.1

"http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/windows-8-1-pre-release-start-screen-your-start-screen-gets-more-personalized-with-windows-8-1.png?w

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Nokia's dumbphones face an uncertain future at Microsoft

"Year-on-year decline." Those are words that no company looks forward to publishing in its earnings reports, but unfortunately we've seen them printed more often than not on Nokia's quarterly statements. Though there have been a few ups and downs, struggling profits and sales have been a general concern for a long time, and unfortunately this quarter's earnings report did little to soothe our worries; Nokia sold 600,000 fewer Lumias than the previous quarter. Now that Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division is nearly complete, much of our focus has turned to how the merger will affect the Lumia lineup of Windows Phones. An even bigger mystery at the moment, however, is what Microsoft will choose to do with the rest of Nokia's phones -- namely, the Mobile Phone division, which consists of the company's basic featurephones and the Asha lineup of advanced featurephones, none of which run Windows Phone.

Just after Microsoft announced its intent to acquire the phone maker, Nokia insisted that the division wasn't going anywhere; it has "substantial global reach ... and a strong customer base," but in emerging markets like India and China, it faces intense competition from fully functional smartphone platforms for a similar cost. Even worse, as we learned in yesterday's report, sales from this division were flat -- and as the competition gets heavier, it's going to get worse, not better. Is it worth it for Microsoft to try saving a lineup of handsets that don't feature Windows Phone OS? Or does it make more sense to push lower-end Lumia devices to cater to the next billion smartphone users?

We've seen several companies make huge moves to compete in emerging markets, where even a difference of $10 or $20 can have a significant impact.

In yesterday's report, Nokia stated: "Our Mobile Phones net sales were affected by competitive industry dynamics, including intense smartphone competition at increasingly lower price points and intense competition at the low end of our product portfolio." In other words, an influx of cheap Android and Firefox OS devices is making it difficult for Nokia's lower-end devices to remain relevant in fiercely competitive countries like India and China.

The Ashas, which bridge the divide between featurephones and smartphones, range from $70 to $100; however, Android devices like the Galaxy Pocket cost around $85 in the same markets and offer similar specs with a much wider variety of apps. Firefox OS devices like the ZTE Open are now available for around $75. Heck, even the Lumia 520, which uses the Windows Phone platform, costs roughly the same as an Asha.

We've seen several companies make huge moves to compete in emerging markets, where even a difference of $10 or $20 can have a significant impact. Unfortunately, this means it's much more difficult for the Asha lineup to compete today than just a couple years ago when they were first introduced. At the time, the concept was sound -- if you offer a featurephone with smart abilities like a developer platform, messaging/email, social networking and so on, the customers will come. But today, as other platforms like Android and Firefox begin to flourish in emerging markets for the same prices, developers have less incentive to focus on making apps for Asha products, and consumers will become more hesitant to buy into the ecosystem.

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Microsoft fixes some of the Surface Pro 2's battery and sleep problems

Microsoft vowed that it would fix the numerous bugs plaguing the Surface Pro 2 in the wake of the flawed December update, and it made good on that promise by rolling out a patch this weekend. The company tells us that the update addresses the most serious problems for affected tablet owners, including reduced battery life and unexpected wake-ups. Future software will tackle the remaining glitches, Redmond says. The partial remedy isn't quite what some were hoping for -- we're still seeing a few complaints -- but it's at least a step in the right direction. Check out Microsoft's full statement below.

This weekend we released an update that addresses the unexpected wake and battery drain behavior experienced by a small number of Surface Pro 2 customers who installed the December Windows Update. This should have no impact on users already running the October Windows Update. We're working hard to address the remaining Surface Pro 2 items from the December Windows Update.

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Via: ZDNet, The Verge

Source: Microsoft Community, Surface Forums

Tags: fix, microsoft, patch, surface, surfacepro2, tablet, update, windows, windows8, windows8.1 Next: Sony's Smart Tennis Sensor hits Japan in May, offers topspin advice for $175
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As Google Shoots For The Moon, Microsoft Praises The Virtues Of Open Research

projects go, the lens is right up there with flying wind turbines and balloon-powered Internet service (though maybe not quite on the same level as self-driving cars). There is an interesting twist to this whole story, though: the researchers who are working on this project at Google previously collaborated with Microsoft Research.

In 2011, Babak Parviz and Brian Otis were still at the University of Washington and published a case study (PDF) with Microsoft Research on how they built a prototype lens that can monitor blood glucose levels. In the paper, Microsoft describes the collaboration as being ‘close’ and going back several years.

“At the time I met Babak, he was starting to work on the functional contact lens, putting displays, or LEDs, into the contact itself, to create displays that sat on the surface of the eye,” Desney Tan, who was then a senior researchers at Microsoft Research, wrote at the time. “He was having a slightly hard time selling the idea, both in terms of feasibility, but also in terms of vision. What we added to the equation was basically a set of needs in all computing environments or in our projections of future computing environments that gelled very well with a particular technology.”

Tan, it turns out, is still at Microsoft Research, and in a somewhat unusual move, he took to Microsoft’s official blog the day after Google’s announcement to talk about Microsoft’s role in all of this. Clearly, Microsoft wasn’t going to let Google get all the praise for a project that was incubated with its support.

Like a good researcher, Tan is quite restrained in his words. He profusely praises the work of Parviz and Otis, but he also notes that Parviz, Otis and the team at Microsoft Research “tackled numerous hard problems around miniaturization, wireless power, wireless communications and biocompatibility.” The really hard questions around this project, he seems to imply, were answered with the help of Microsoft and not at Google

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Microsoft Sold 908,000 Xbox One Consoles In The US In December, Besting The PS4

According to NPD numbers published by Microsoft, 908,000 Xbox One consoles were sold in the United States in December. Microsoft had previously reported that its new console had sold 1 million units in its first day of availability globally, and 3 million through the end of 2013.

The console, which launched November 22nd, has seen lower aggregate sales than its rival, the Playstation 4. By year’s end, Playstation’s new console had sold 4.2 million units to Microsoft’s 3 million sum. However, the Playstation did come to the market slightly before Microsoft’s device, giving it an edge.

There is a war of numbers at play here: Both Sony and Microsoft want to shout the loudest about their sales, implicitly telling gamers that they are winning, and as such will warrant more developer attention and therefore sport a healthier platform in the end.

You can get pretty far into the weeds on the matter. As TechCrunch reported when Microsoft announced the 1 million figure:

Sony’s PlayStation 4 also sold over 1 million  units in 24 hours when it launched around a week ago. So far, the two console giants are neck and neck. However, there’s just one little detail Microsoft fails to mention in its PR: The Xbox One launched in a total of 13 countries, 11 more than the PlayStation 4.

As a final carrot to all of this, Microsoft sold 643,000 of its now dated Xbox 360 console in the month as well, meaning it sold north of 1.5 million consoles in the month in the country. Given the rising importance of the living room for digital platform companies as they pursue cross-device and interest services, you could call that number a win.

Sony for now retains that global sales lead. It will be interesting to see who leads come mid-year.

Top Image Credit: Flickr

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Google’s New Smart Contact Lens Is Old News For Microsoft

Google today announced its smart contact lens project, but it’s not the first by a long shot (or even a moon shot). Other companies have long been working on smart lenses — including Microsoft Research, which unveiled a similar project in 2011 in collaboration with someone who now works for Google X.

Babak Parvis used to be a professor at the University of Washington, where he collaborated with Microsoft Research. He was of the first to work on smart contact lenses. Today, he is at Google and working on Google Glass and the smart lens project.

But as is often the case with Microsoft Research projects, it doesn’t look like the project ever went anywhere.

Here is the video Microsoft made back in 2011 to showcase this project:

It’s also worth noting that there are already some smart contact lenses on the market today. They don’t measure glucose, but the Sensimed Triggerfish, for example, is a disposable contact lens that uses a sensor to measure changes to the eye in order to personalize treatment for glaucoma patients. This technology has been available in Europe since 2010, but the company hasn’t received FDA approval to sell it in the U.S. yet.

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Holiday Survey Indicates Strong Performance In The Tablet Space By Amazon, Microsoft

This morning, online advertising network Chikita released a short report detailing the changes it saw in the tablet space after Christmas compared to the period directly before. The report shows a small decline in Apple’s tablet dominance, strong momentum for Amazon, and perhaps surprisingly, second highest in-class growth for Microsoft’s Surface line of devices.

What Chikita found is that Microsoft’s Surface tablets picked up 0.5% usage share in the United States and Canadian tablet markets during the post-Christmas period. Assuming that more consumer-friendly tablets are gifted in the holiday period than business-facing devices, we can assume that Microsoft moved more Surface 2 devices than Surface Pro 2 devices at Christmas.

This data therefore affirms the other market indications that the Surface 2 tablet hybrid is selling well.

Why are we looking so closely for data of this sort? The simple answer is that the Surface project remains so nascent, and yet so important for Microsoft’s future as an OEM and platform (that thing called Windows) that we need to track its pulse as closely as possible.

Microsoft will provide us with a single Surface figure when it reports its calendar fourth quarter earnings: revenue. But that blunt statistic will only get us so far. That Microsoft picked up 0.5% usage share in the period to land at 2.3% indicates that as a percentage of its total share, this holiday was big for it, even if its total share gain pales compared to Apple’s dominance.

Amazon picked up 0.6% usage share in the period, on what Chikita calls the Kindle Fire’s “remarkable run to the top of the Android tablet marketplace.” Amazon ended the period with 9.4% usage share.

Usage share of course is not directly commensurate with market share.

With the help of Amazon, Android continues to outpace Windows handily, but there was a minor change of the guards that is worth nothing:

Microsoft’s Surface lineup also continued its impressive year end run. Surface users generated more tablet traffic than all Google Nexus tablet users following the holiday, making Microsoft the fourth-largest source of continental tablet Web traffic should it maintain the lion’s share of this latest share growth.

Of course, Nexus devices are only one part of the Android tablet ecosystem.

Looking at the above broadly, innovation by partners is helping keep Android growing, while Windows claws market share from tablet leaders. That Apple is shedding minor share in the face of the twin challenge is not surprising.

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