items tagged with Microsoft

Windows Live Mail or Hotmail is beginning to roll out free POP3 access for users in the U.S. now. Hotmail POP3 access was previously only available on premium accounts. Other countries including Canada, the UK, and most western European countries also now have free POP3 support. Microsoft is very late in opening free POP3 access to everyone, various email services including Google’s gmail was offering the feature since its launch. Yahoo remains the biggest player who does not offer free POP3 access right now. Hopefully Yahoo will also follow Microsoft here. One important feature Hotmail now needs to offer is the ability for users to forward their email to any domain they wish, including gmail. Still, users can only forward email to hotmail.com, msn.com, or live.com domains.

This is a guest post written by Josh Highland, Founder of Not Popular

Josh Highland catches up with James Johnson at the Inland Empire .NET User's Group MVM Awards. The MVM (Most
Valuable Member) Awards spotlight outstanding members of the .NET community in the Inland Empire. James
Johnson, who founded the Inland Empire .NET User's Group 5 years ago, talks to TechZulu about the growing pains
the user group has experienced, and how the MVM program has helped boost the .NET community in the Inland
Empire. James Johnson blogs at www.duringlunch.com. The Inland Empire .NET User's Group's home is
www.iedotnetug.org

Stuff Don recommends you check out this summer:

• Oslo
• F#
• Scala
• ML Programming
• Elements of ML Programming by Jeffrey Ullman
• Martin Fowler
• Pride, Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Check out Don's take on being "Microsoft's first blogger," his favorite technologies, and his thoughts on Twitter.

Don't forget to take Don with you:

While at Mix09 Geoffrey Emery talked to Angus Logan and James Senior about New Improvements to Live Messenger, In the second part of the interview we dive into what is new in the live framework. Its amazing at how much stuff these guys have going on. Sometimes it makes my head spin. In this interview we also get into what the difference between live sync and Live mesh. All this and much more in this great interview

What’s New in this Release

This update includes:

• Support for side-by-side installation of the www.mesh.com local client and the developer.mesh-ctp.com local client. This means that you can use the production Mesh.com to sync data across all your devices, and develop applications for the Mesh Developer Sandbox that uses the local client—all on the same machine. For instructions on setting up side-by-side, please see this forum post.
• Support for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8
• Single installer for the Live Framework SDK and the Live Framework Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.
• Resource Scripts are now supported in Silverlight applications and with the local Live Operating Environment
• Public availability of the SDK and Tools on the Microsoft.com Download Center.
• Improved stability in the client and the cloud Live Operating Environment.
• Design and performance improvements to the API toolkits
• Simplified workflow for setting up an account and a Live Framework project on the Azure Developer Portal.

The Live Framework SDK and Tools April CTP has just been launched!  Not really sure why they launched mid-March and called it an April CTP – but hey, I’m not complaining when you get:

• All-in-one installer (like a multivitamin – lots of goodness in one capsule)
• Support for Win7 and IE8 (satisfies even the most demanding dogfooder)
• Side-by-side installation of Live Framework CTP and Live Mesh Beta (now be a consumer and dev – all at the same time!)
• Performance Improvements (we’re super slick, just like Win7)
• and more

For the full announcement

Live Framework Explorer (LFE) is an addin for Visual Studio 2008 that makes it much easier to browse the contents and data inside a user's Live Framework Resource Model.

http://www.codeplex.com/lfe

Last Saturday, I told you about my first experience with Kinect, Microsoft's supposedly ber console add-on. Like I said then, Dance Central on the Kinect was a blast, but there is no way this peripheral can live up to the hype it has been building, especially with the problems I have with two of its other games, Joyride and Kinect Adventures.

Rewind. On June 14, I went to one of the weirdest introductions for a gaming peripheral. Under the auspices of a Cirque du Solei performance, Microsoft introduced the name and some of the games it will be releasing for Kinect. The environment, with palm trees and drum beats, was natural, primal, nearly religious as the attendants clothed me with a white smock and asked me to stand with a large crowd of similarly dressed attendees. Then, the show began. Obviously hyperbole, Microsoft touted the new peripheral as life-changing, Light of the Island stuff. Entertaining, but I didn't learn much about the add-on.

Still skeptical, I jumped onto the stage and played with Dance Central. I left impressed, going so far as to tell TechZulu's Efren Toscano that I would pay up to $200 for the device, justifying it like I would a piece of exercise equipment.

June 16, after waiting in line for more than an hour, I had the chance to play with two more Kinect games, Kinect Joy Ride and Kinect Adventures!. Unfortunately, Kinect let me down. While racing Toscano during an obstacle course mini game, Adventures and Joy Ride kept perfect track of all of his movements but were extremely delayed in processing mine. Though I didn't have a stop watch, I peg it at about one-third of a second, more than enough time to screw up a hurdle jump. When I asked the Kinect rep who was leading us through the game about the lag, she said that the game was 75 percent complete and that multiplayer functionality should have been ready. Yes, it should have.

As for Joy Ride, the game was bland. Granted, Toscano and I only played one round, but it was uninspired and didn't give any reason for me to give up my controller for an air wheel.

Then there's the problem of pricing. What will these games cost? Right now, I can tell you that I would never pay $60 for what I played.

Finally, rumors abound that the Kinect demos during Microsoft's conference were faked, an elaborate, choreographed performance (Source: http://www.gogaminggiant.com/2010/06/15/kinect-on-stage-demos-faked/). So far, I haven't been able to confirm this, but if true, it makes one ask "why?" What problems are there with the add-on that a live demo was too much of a risk?

My final verdict: wait and see. So far, the games are dull. With the exception of Dance Central, the motion-control experience was not enough to justify another $150. Even if Microsoft and developers eliminate the lag and come out with phenomenal games, will people be willing to spend the money on a peripheral versus a console like the Nintendo Wii? If Kinect fails to sell, will Microsoft scuttle the whole thing, leaving early adopters abandoned? Like I said, wait and see.