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Microsoft purchases SkyDrive.com in response to Apple’s iCloud.com

Microsoft purchases SkyDrive.com in response to Apple’s iCloud.com

All of you who are using Hotmail or Live mail as their email service must be aware of the Sky Drive feature provided by the Microsoft. Sky Drive  was launched by Microsoft much before the launch of iCloud service by Apple. Sky Drive enable one to store up to 20 GB of digital media online which can easily be made either public or private.

Now after the launch of iCloud service by Apple on a dedicated domain iCloud.com, Microsoft also decided to launch Sky Drive on a dedicated domain and hence recently purchased SkyDrive.com for an undisclosed price. Till now Microsoft uses a sub domain skydrive.live.com to offer storage services but from now onwards it will use SkyDrive.com to offer the same.

Up till 5th June the who is of SkyDrive .Com shows the owner as some auto company but from 5th June onwards Microsoft is listed as the owner of this domain. The domain is presently registered at Mark Monitor Inc. Microsoft not only acquired SkyDrive.com but also acquired many other typos of the same domain name. The list is given below:-

  • SkyDriv.com
  • SkyDirve.com
  • SkuDrive.com
  • SkrDrive.com
  • MSNSkyDrive.com
  • WindowsLiveVoice.com
  • WindowsLiveDrive.com
  • WindowsLiveDrive.mobi
  • WindowsLiveDrive.net
  • WindowsLiveDrive.org
  • WindowsLiveMedia.com
  • SkyDriveFolders.com
  • SkyDriveSync.com
  • SkyDriveSpace.com
  • SkyDriveStorage.com

Sky Drive will be directly integrated into the next release of Windows Phone 7 code named Mango. This will enable a user to upload videos, images and documents directly to their Sky Drive account and afterwards share them with others.  It will also enable you to search your Sky Drive account for particular files or images.

Sky Drive is one of the mainstream social media product of Microsoft and it is still not clear that why they hadn’t purchased this name on the date they released Sky Drive to public. I think the Apple’s recently launched iCloud service forced Microsoft to make this bold move.

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Beware of Cookiejacking: Internet Explorer’s new problem

With the rise of Facebook and Twitter the problem of Cookiejacking is also rising.

So the question is

What is Cookiejacking?

Answer: Cookiejacking basically refers to the hacking or stealing of the user’s cookie from their browser particular Internet Explorer(all versions) which is basically responsible for signing in into the facebook or twitter platform.

Which versions are effected?

Answers: According to research all versions of IE are effected.

Is it so easy to still a cookie?

Answer: In one word answer is NO. To steal user’s cookie from their browser, the hacker must persuade users to interact with some sort of application built for this particular purpose. The application can be common facebook apps like games etc.This sounds difficult. Isn’t it?

What is Microsoft’s response to this problem?

Answer: According to Microsoft this is not a high level risk as without persuasion it is nearly impossible for the hacker to steal cookies from one’s browser.

What can you do to save yourself from Cookiejacking?

Answer: Never ever visit suspicious websites and never allow your facebook account access to potentially unsafe application.

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At last Nokia decided to go with Microsoft

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile manufacturer at last decided to go with Microsoft in order to to compete with Apple iPhone  and Google’s Android platforms.

Stephen Elop,the new Chief Executive at Nokia may consider this step as a strategical u-turn but investors didn’t take it positively at all. A fall of about 14% was observed in the shares of Nokia after this announcement.

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Software giant Microsoft’s new X-BOX 360 motion controller ‘KINECT’ released

Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal, is a “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform, and may later be supported by PCs via Windows 8. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360’s audience beyond its typical gamer base. Kinect competes with the Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus and PlayStation Move motion control systems for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively.

Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010. It will be released in Europe on November 10, 2010; Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore on November 18, 2010;and Japan on November 20, 2010. Purchase options for the sensor peripheral will include a bundle with the game Kinect Adventures and console bundles with either a 4 GB or 250 GB Xbox 360 console and Kinect Adventures.

While Sony’s PlayStation Move uses the PlayStation Eye camera to detect and measure the location of high-tech and spatially-aware handheld controllers, Kinect has no physical controllers to speak of at all.

The idea is that your body is the controller. It’s up to the Kinect games and apps to use the camera and microphone to work out what you’re doing and what you’re saying, and to interpret your commands in the appropriate fashion.

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New Microsoft Office 2011 announced for Apple MAC

At a product launch event in New York Monday, Microsoft gave the media a day-early peek at Mac Office 2011, which went on sale at retail outlets and via Microsoft this morning. Eric Wilfrid, general manager of Microsoft’s Mac business unit, explains how Mac Office 2011 is faster than previous versions, not only in startup, but in the execution of key tasks.

Among the key differences in the new Mac Office over old versions is the appearance for the first time of a Mac version of Outlook, which takes the place of Entourage, which a Microsoft representative said was simply not meeting the needs of users. Also included in Mac Office 2011 are new versions of Word, Excel and Power Point and a new user interface based on the ribbon menu interface first featured in the 2007 edition of Office for Windows.

While the new suite does offer a raft of new Web-enabled features like Office 2010 for Windows, it’s not a clone of its Windows sibling and offers some features that have yet to turn up on the Windows side. For example, in the new Mac Outlook, you can clean up the view of your calendar by assigning categories to appointments and then filtering the view of the calendar by category. For example, by un checking the box for the “Personal” category, all such appointments will temporarily disappear from your calendar.

Office 2011 comes in three different versions: Home and Student and costs $120 (or $150 for a family pack with three licenses). The base package doesn’t include Outlook, which is only available with the Home and Business edition, which retails for $200 (with a “multi-pack” of two licenses available for $280), or with the Academic edition, which costs $100.