Update for Windows Live Essentials 2011 now available
Today, we released an update for Windows Live Essentials 2011 in all 48 languages. This minor release includes numerous updates across all of the programs in the Essential package, including Windows Live Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, Writer, and Mesh. In the coming weeks, customers on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 will receive a notification prompting them to upgrade to the new version. Since this release contains critical fixes for the Essentials package, in a few months, the update will become required for all eligible customers.
Current customers moving from Windows Live Essentials 2009 to 2011 will see a whole host of new features, including new social features in Windows Live Messenger, the ability to chat with Facebook friends, photo fuse in Photo Gallery, new themes in Movie Maker, and much more.
You can download the update now at the Windows Live Essentials website.
Steven Abrahams
Lead Program Manager – Windows Live
Hunger Games – Tour the Capitol with Internet Explorer
Hunger Games – Tour the Capitol with Internet Explorer
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When I think of the Capitol in the Hunger Games I vividly remember scenes from all three books in the series. I feel anticipation, eagerness, and a huge amount of sadness. Seeing the city and whole world of Panem come to life as the Hunger Games movie hits theaters is going to be an explosive experience. However, for those who are fans of the Games and looking for an immersive experience now, you should check out: http://thecapitoltour.pn/.
If you read the IEBlogyou can find out about the technology behind the website. It is built with HTML5, integrated with Facebook and helps to bring the director’s vision of the Games to life. In fact the folks on the Internet Explorer Team worked closely with director Gary Ross to bring in scenes – and exclusive videos – from the movies! When you are immersed in the world, you are seeing his ideas and thoughts from the movie directly through your PC. As a result the experience extends the Hunger Games from the movie screen to the PC – adding visual elements to the story that haven’t been in traditional companion sites.
I keep typing the word exciting when I’m thinking about this website because that’s what I am: excited. To be able to experience the story in another forum beyond print and film presents a vivid new way of discovering a world that I care so deeply about. So, check out the site, join in the fun and let me know what you think in the comments below or via Twitter- @kristinalibby. Oh, and if you haven’t done it yet, check out this post about the super cool HP Folio with Hunger Games logo and see the stars as they interacted with fans this past week at the Microsoft Store.
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New 3rd-Gen iPad Users Plagued With Weak Wi-Fi Strength Issues, Are You Affected?
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Apple’s recording breaking product, the new iPad, is not even a week old yet, but that hasn’t stopped a subset of users picking up faults with the third-generation device. The new iPad officially went on sale last Friday, with Apple announcing in the last few days the they managed to ship a staggering three million units within the first weekend, making it the most successful iPad launch to date. Users have been queuing up outside Apple Stores in the hope of getting their hands on the tablet which features an A5X dual-core processor, a 5 mega-pixel rear camera and a beautiful high-resolution Retina display which contains a whopping 3.1 million pixels.
Some users had made their feelings known early on believing that the new iPad was generating a lot more heat than the original iPad or the iPad 2. A non-official test was carried out yesterday which involved the use of a thermal imaging camera in order to get to the bottom of the problem with the results showing that the latest iPad does indeed generate approximately 5 degrees centigrade more heat in certain areas than its predecessor. However, on the grand scale of things, such a relatively small heat gain shouldn’t be a big problem when you consider the improved performance and power of the device along with the Retina display. when demanding more features, improved performance and better displays, users need to be prepared to accept a certain trade-off, something that was mirrored by a statement from Apple relating to the heat subject.
Putting the heat generating issue aside, it would seem that still not all new iPad owners are happy with what their new unit provides. The Apple Support Communities forum contains a thread, which is growing rapidly, about some reported issues relating to the performance of the wireless connection on the new iPad. Dozens of consumers are taking to the website to express their concerns about the inferior Wi-Fi performance when compared to that of the iPad 2. Some of the reports from the site make claims that in areas where they previously received strong wireless signals are now weak or non-existent.
The comparisons are being made with the new iPad against other Apple devices such as a MacBook Pro or an iPhone 4S. A number of the thread entries claim that a MacBook, iPad 2 or iPhone 4S can pick up a strong signal in their homes or place of work, while the new iPad fails to pick up any signal at all, or is noticeably a lot weaker when compared to the other devices. Some of the affected users have noted that they have returned their iPad to the place of purchase and received a product replacement that doesn’t seem to suffer from the same affliction. On the flip side, a user who goes by the name ‘HealthClif’ had let the forum know that he had reverted back into using his iPad 2 full-time after receiving multiple replacements of the new iPad that all suffered from the same issue.
The Wi-Fi concerns of users seems rather similar to those expressed in 2010 when the original iPad was launched, something that was solved by Apple through an iOS software update. At that time, Apple conceded that a very small number of devices had been affected by the issue, something which seems to be the case in this instance. I personally purchased two new iPads on launch day and have experienced no issue with either of them, but for those who have, we could soon be seeing an iOS 5.1.1 update if Apple finds there really is an issue.
If you’re affected by this issue, drop your thoughts on our Facebook and Google+ pages.
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Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – ASUS All-In-One PC - #winchat
If I know one thing about the people who tune into our weekly Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chats, it’s that they love All-in-One PCs. It doesn’t take me by surprise because I also love All-in-Ones. I mean what’s not to love in having everything you want in one place? For those of you who agree, you’ll be excited to know that ASUS is joining us tomorrow during our 12-1pm PT Tech Tuesday to discuss All-in-Ones and to give away the 24” touch-enabled version of this hot PC! If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will.
The great thing about an All-in-One PC is that you can do so many things with it. You could put it in the kitchen, snap recipes together and become (or feel like) a professional chef. If you have a child with learn disabilities or an elderly parent still new to technology, the touch-enabled surface and wide screen size makes and All-in-One a great personal computing option. Not to mention, an All-In-One PC is clutter free and able to exist on almost any surface without that old relic of a tower. Finally, it’s a great place to stream TV and still be a workstation.
Did you know that ASUS is now launching a 27” All-In-One PC? That’s a two and a half foot monitor or roughly 3 and ½ adult hands touching pinky to thumb. That’s double the size of the TVs most people had in their kitchens 10 years ago. 27” is huge. While this model is not touch enabled, it doesn’t need to be with great computing powers and a giant wide-screen screen you’ll be dazzled.
To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:
- Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
- Follow the hashtag #win7tech or #winchat
- Follow @windows, @asus, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.
- For full legal Terms and conditions, click here.
Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: What is an All-In-One PC? Who should buy this type of PC? How do you pronounce ASUS?
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First Windows 8 Codec Pack Released
While it is possible to play a certain number of files right away in the Windows operating systems, others are not supported by the default applications right out of the box. You can for instance play wmv videos directly, while you won’t be able to do the same with mkv files.
If you want to play unsupported formats, you have three options to do just that. You can try and convert the video format into a format supported by the operating system. That’s not an ideal solution though, as it takes time and system resources to convert, and becomes less practicable the more files you have that you need converted.
The second option is to install a program that is supporting the file format. As far as video is concerned, you could install the VLC media player which supports virtually all popular media formats.
But third party software does not help you if you prefer to use Windows Media Player or another software that ships with the operating system. That’s when you need to install codecs to add support for the formats system-wide. You could go codec hunting now to find the codecs that you need, or you could install a codec pack instead which installs codecs for all the popular formats in one go.
The first Windows 8 Codec Pack has just been released by the same author who has created codec packs for previous Windows operating systems as well. Pay close attention to the installation dialog though, as it will install third party software on your system if you do not uncheck it during setup.
The codec package adds support for a variety of media files, including divx, flac, flv, mkv, rmvb, xvid and more than a dozen other formats. These are system-wide codecs which means that any program can utilize them to play the files.
You can download the latest version of the codecs pack from the developer website.
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Enable Force AC (Fast) Charging On Galaxy Nexus With Kernel Patch
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If you have a smartphone or a tablet, you most certainly must’ve observed how it charges slowly through a USB connection than through when it is connected to an AC power outlet. I’m not really sure why this is the case (it has something to do with how USB ports draw less power), but chad0989 over on popular Android development forums XDA-Developers has found a way to get AC outlet-level fast charging on Galaxy Nexus through a USB connection by using his kernel patch.
As with all system-level hacks, the Force AC (fast) charging kernel patch requires a rooted Galaxy Nexus. Applying the hack also requires some really advanced skills, but more on that after the jump!
From XDA-Developers:
I put together this patch for you guys at the request of a few different members here in the nexus forum. This allows one to force AC charging for any charger that is detected as USB (i.e. car chargers, inductive chargers through the pogo pins).
When it comes down to actually applying the patch, things aren’t so simple. There is no ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery-ready flashable .zip file or APK to install. Instead, the developer has simply released a patch that allows developers to integrate the feature into their own custom kernel while compiling. As of writing, we couldn’t find a flashable kernel with support for the feature, but hopefully there will be one released in the future to make the process easier.
Once you have a kernel with Force AC (fast) charging support, you can install IncrediControl to toggle fast-charging from General > Force fast charge. Afterwards, when you connect your Galaxy Nexus using a USB cable, it will charge faster or, to be more precise, as fast as an AC charger.
If you aren’t the sort who knows their way around kernels (developing, not just flashing them), then we suggest you stay away from this mod as this may damage your device.
Head on over to the official thread over on XDA-Developers to read instructions straight from the developer.
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We Are Moving To Everything-Microsoft.com!
The new Everything-Microsoft.com site is the new merged domain for our three sites:
- Windows 7 News - already migrated
- Windows 8 News - moving soon
- Windows 9 News - already migrated
We’ve taken this bold decision in order to make it easier for our readers to access the great content that our team has been producing. No longer will you have to visit three sites to keep up to date with the latest Windows OS developments – all of our content will be found in one place.
This will be the last post on this site and all new posts will be published on Everything-Microsoft.com - in a few days we will redirect this site to the new url.
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