mixing

reporter's notebook LAS VEGAS--Microsoft's Clint Rutkas was sent a rather intriguing e-mail a couple weeks back. Could he use a phone he'd never held to control a robot he hadn't built to send T-shirts into the crowd at the Mix10 conference.

Ever the adventurous type, Rutkas readily agreed. And sure enough, when Monday's keynote rolled around, Rutkas' Windows Phone T-Shirt Cannon was ready.

Rutkas said he didn't even get a prototype phone in his hands until a couple days into the project. Although he was 90 percent sure he could just do things remotely … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Microsoft won't say just when it expects to ship Internet Explorer 9, but whenever it does, it won't be running on Windows XP.

"Building a modern browser requires a modern operating system," Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch said at a press conference at the Mix10 event.

Microsoft unveiled a "platform preview" of IE9 earlier on Monday. That early version, which contains the Chakra engine, but not the full user interface (or even a back button) requires Vista Service Pack 2 or later.

One of the areas of focus was on the ability … Read more

LAS VEGAS--To improve its browser, Microsoft is counting on some help from the PC.

Internet Explorer 9, the next version of Microsoft's browser, will draw on the graphics chip and other hardware to accelerate the rendering of text and graphics from the Web. At the Mix show here on Tuesday, Microsoft is showing some of that code and releasing a "platform preview" of IE9. The code (available here) contains the new engine but is not a full-featured browser.

In an interview ahead of the keynote, IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch said the company plans to update the … Read more

For those who doubted that Microsoft was serious in its effort to re-engage with the Web, it's time to put the skepticism aside.

At its Mix conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Microsoft gave programmers, Web developers, and the world at large a taste of things to come with its Web browser. Specifically, Microsoft released what it's calling the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview, a prototype that's designed to show off the company's effort to improve how the browser deals with the Web as it exists today and, just as important, to add support for new Web technologies that are coming right now.

The new software is only a framework, raw enough that it's still missing a "back" button. But with "a few" updated preview versions set to arrive at eight-week intervals, the project will develop into a beta, a release candidate, and eventually the full-fledged product IE9, said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer and the executive who'll describe the project at Mix.

Coming in the new version is support for new Web standards including plug-in-free video; better performance with graphics, text, and JavaSript by taking advantage of modern computing hardware; and a new effort at gathering and responding to feedback from those using the prototype software, Hachamovitch said. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Although Windows Phone 7 Series devices won't hit the market until the end of the year, Microsoft has already started its sales pitch to developers.

At the Mix10 trade show on Monday, Microsoft detailed how programmers can write software for the phone using Silverlight and XNA and made available test versions of the tools for writing code.

In a video interview, Joe Belfiore and Scott Guthrie talked about the approach that Microsoft is taking with regard to design, multitasking and the company's effort to make things simpler than they have been in the past.

Here's the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Last year, when Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton was looking for examples of good design work at Microsoft, he had to look to the edges of Redmond.

As examples of good product design. Buxton pointed to things like Microsoft Hardware's Arc Mouse. A year later, he said, he need look no further than core Microsoft products like the new Windows Phone software or the way that Windows, the Xbox, and phones are all working together.

Buxton said it's ever more important that devices play nice with one another given that more and more of them are trying to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The next generation of Windows Phone, due out toward the end of the year, is a big focus at Microsoft's Mix conference here this week, and I'm starting to learn a few things about how Windows Phone 7 Series will--and won't--be different from the Zune HD.

Windows Phone 7 Series, the next-generation mobile-phone platform from Microsoft, is set to offer a great value to music fans: every phone will basically include the complete functionality of the Zune HD. Joe Belfiore, Windows Phone program management vice president, on Monday confirmed that the Zune HD's wireless sync--one of my favorite features--will be carried forward to the phone platform.

When you bring your phone home and plug it in, it will automatically scan local wireless networks to see if it recognizes your home Wi-Fi network. If it finds it, and your PC is turned on, the Zune software will launch and automatically do a two-way sync of all your music, videos, and pictures. … Read more

One of the key questions surrounding the new Windows Phone Series 7 devices has been whether the operating system lets you use more than one application at once.

And while Microsoft announced a bunch of different details about the new phones, it wasn't exactly clear about this question. In part, that's because the answer isn't a simple yes or no.

To reiterate what Windows Phone boss Andy Lees said in a CNET interview last month, Microsoft is doing some multitasking with Windows Phone, such as letting one play music and run an application or check his or … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is set to be the star of the show on Monday as the Mix10 trade show gets under way. The software maker is detailing how developers can write software for phones running the new mobile operating system, which are set to hit the market later this year.

In a press release, Microsoft detailed some of the features of the OS, including a built-in location and push notification system, which works whether an application is running or not. The phones will also support hardware-accelerated video with digital rights management and smooth streaming.

At the event, … Read more