Microsoft offers Xbox LIVE Gold subscription free for this weekend only

 

 

Microsoft is feeling gracious this weekend by offering a Xbox LIVE Gold membership free for the weekend, ending Monday morning April 22nd. If you ever wanted to explore the features that come with a Gold membership, now is your chance!

Microsoft typically charges $59.99 for a 12 month membership or $9.99 for a monthly membership. Those of you who reside in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Japan can snag this offer and have access to entertainment apps like Netflix and enable features such as Video Kinect. Hit the source link to find out how you can obtain this offer.

The Xbox 360 remains the top-selling gaming console in the United States for another month, marking 27 consecutive months of success for the company. This trend of dominance continues over competitors like Nintendo and Sony.

Source: http://majornelson.com/2013/04/18/free-xbox-live-gold-weekend-for-us-canada-latin-america-and-japan/

Windows 8.1 Pro Preview build 9374 leaks onto the web

Another leak! We have another leak! This time it's Windows 8.1 build 9374, our first leak which actually calls itself Windows 8.1. So far, it is unknown what changes this build includes, but we do know it dubs itself as the Windows 8.1 Pro Preview.

The leak comes from the same guys who leaked build 9369, the only difference this time is that this leak is a newer build and is a 32bit ISO. We are yet to confirm this leak as real, but many who are already testing the build are saying that the leak is indeed legitimate. As per usual, we will not be linking to any download links. Posting download links in the comments is also strictly prohibited.
Again, it is unknown what new features this build includes, if any. There isn't a huge jump between 9369 and 9374, so it's possible that this build won't see anything astonishingly new, keep your fingers crossed though!

Check back at The World Of Techs for more on this new leak!

First Look: Windows 8.1 Pro Preview Build 9374 (video)

With a new leak comes a new video demoing some of the new features Microsoft are working on. This time, we have a new search experience 'thing', as well as a new Kiosk mode that doesn't work properly as of yet. The Kiosk Mode is interesting, as this may be the option that locks the user down into the desktop app.

Of course, as this is a leaked build expect to see bugs. Sadly, the desktop app isn't listed when selecting an app for Kiosk Mode, hopefully it shows up in future builds. In the meantime however, Kiosk mode does allow you to lockdown a user into a selected Metro app. Watch the video for a demonstration!


 

Windows 8.1 Kiosk mode lets you automatically launch an app on login

Windows 8.1 Pro Preview Build 9374 leaked today and it seemed to be similar to the previous leak of build 9369, except for one big noticeable difference. Build 9374 contains a new feature called Kiosk mode. So what exactly does this feature do?

As you can see from the screenshot above, Kiosk mode is available under the Users setting, in the Lockdown category. Kiosk mode allows for the system to be locked down to a single immersive app. Users can set this app to launch automatically when the system logs on. The operating system can also be locked down to specific features. This feature is not yet fully complete in this build.
Recently, we learned about the possibility of Microsoft creating an option to allow users to bypass the Start Screen and boot directly to the desktop. That rumor also indicated that we would see a boot-to-desktop feature via a 'Kiosk mode.' While Microsoft may be working on a boot-to-desktop feature for future builds, as of this new leaked build, it is not present. Nor does the Kiosk mode allow for a boot-to-desktop feature in this leaked build.

You can check out the video highlighting the leaked build here. In the video, you will see how Kiosk mode is set up. Unfortunately, the feature is still buggy and not yet complete.

Source: winbeta.org

Microsoft's Surface tablet sells more units than Google's Nexus 10, still behind the Apple iPad

According to analyst Benedict Evans, sales of Google's Nexus 10 tablet isn't doing that great, especially compared to sales of Microsoft's Surface tablet. Everyone has been quick to criticize the Surface tablet, but these unique devices from Microsoft are actually doing better than Google's current Nexus tablet.

According to Evans, there are just 680,000 Nexus 10 tablets in use and around 6.8 million Nexus 7 tablets in use. This data comes extrapolated from Google Play to provide a rough estimate of total devices in use.

Google's Nexus 10 tablet was released in November of 2012, around the same time as the release of the Surface RT device back in October of 2012. Evans mentions that Surface tablets have sold only 1.5 million units, which is still more than the Nexus 10. Google's Nexus 10 tablet features a 10.1 inch, 2560x1600 pixel display, and was considered as the world's highest resolution tablet display during its debut.

The Apple iPad mini has apparently sold 10 million units in just the last two months of Q4. In fact, Apple sold 36.9 million iPads in the second half of 2012, just to put things in perspective.
While many of us are quick to criticize sales of Microsoft's Surface device, we must not forget one important thing. The Surface has sold more than Google's Nexus 10! With Windows 8.1 coming soon, perhaps Microsoft will boost its Surface sales and perhaps become a viable competitor to the iPad as the device matures.

Visiting Bing.com over a secure web connection results in a SSL error

If you head over to Bing.com using SSL, you will notice a security certificate error. Users can still proceed to view Bing.com but this error is obviously something that shouldn't be present.
Heading over to https://bing.com/ will result in a SSL error which tells you that you are most likely visiting a malicious website. "An attacker on your network could be trying to get you to visit a fake (and potentially harmful) version of bing.com. You should not proceed, especially if you have never seen this warning before for this site," Google's Chrome browser warns.

Typically, HTTPS is used to encrypt communication so malicious eyes cant see network activity to see what users are searching for. In order for this to work, there needs to be valid and updated security certificates. Looks like Microsoft dropped the ball on this one. Microsoft has yet to release an official statement on the matter or an explanation.

Microsoft's Azure cloud-based computing platform experienced an outage back in February 22nd, which was a result of an expired SSL certificate. As a result, services were either offline or suffered from poor performance due to the expiration.

Update: It appears that the certificate issue has been resolved. Microsoft is using Akamai for the certificate service, where the problem had originated from. "We're working with Akamai on that. It should be fixed soon," Microsoft had stated before the issue was eventually resolved.


Source: winbeta.org

Microsoft's Online Store receives a new redesigned look

Click to Enlarge

Microsoft has rolled out a new redesigned look for its online Microsoft Store, now featuring a much better way to shop for Microsoft's products and services. The new design allows consumers to easily browse and purchase products, find help, and search for a store location near you.

The new design also showcases the top product categories, as well as new products and popular touchscreen computers like the Surface Pro, right on the front-page of the online store. The new design also highlights the online store's everyday free shipping feature, as well as support on downloading and installing any software purchased from the store, and help from a "handpicked" expert.

For example, searching for the Surface Pro on the new Microsoftstore.com site, you will not only see the devices categories and prices, but also "what's new" about the device. Microsoft also showcases accessories available for the device as well as what makes the device so great. The bottom line is this new design offers more information in an organized and modern fashion.

The new look is viewable by everyone at http://www.microsoftstore.com/

Source: winbeta.org

Twitter kills support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and 7 starting May 13th

Twitter has announced that they are killing support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 starting May 13th. Twitter's Tweet button was first introduced in 2010 and was built around Internet Explorer 6.

"When the Tweet button was introduced in 2010, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 was our baseline. Now, most users have upgraded and we see IE6 usage dwindled. On May 13th 2013, we’re going to prune our support for that browser and its successor, IE7," Twitter stated in an official blog post.
In essence, the Tweet button, Follow button, embedded Tweets, and Twitter timelines will no longer work in Internet Explorer 6. "The script will detect the unsupported browser and silently exit. The content from the embed codes will remain in place," Twitter adds. The framework that allows developers to respond to user interactions with Twitter widgets will no longer work in IE6 and IE7.

In Internet Explorer 7, however, widgets will still be rendered but only for the time being as the browser is now given "limited support" and future features may not be implemented. Although support for IE6 and IE7 is dead, “Tweet” links will still share your page, “Follow” links will still point to a users’ profiles, and embeddable timeline codes will link to the main timeline on the Twitter website.

Again, this does not take affect until May 13th.

Source: winbeta.org

How to Add Dropbox (and other cloud services) to Office 2013

 

 

Out of the box, Office 2013 is designed to integrate seamlessly with the cloud – just as long as it’s Microsoft’s SkyDrive service.

If you use other cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive you can obviously browse to your local folders in the Open and Save As dialogs but you cannot Add a Place (other than the two Microsoft services) to Office’s open and save dialogs.

Instead of just copying and pasting others blog I will provide the link to their blog so that there bandwith is unaffected and even you get most of the information at my blog. And ofcourse all this without any ads.

Here is the link to the post.  Click to see the post