Just a short drive from Schipol airport, the Microsoft office in Amsterdam is a world away from the traditional corporate office space which can be seen replicated all over the world. This office is completely permanent desk free, in other words the office fully employs hotdesking. For such a large office space this is no mean feat! The company wanted to put the focus firmly on coworking and collaboration, employees are allowed the freedom to work in the area of the office which is the most suitable for the type of work they are doing at any given time. Microsoft was so committed to the idea of hotdesking in Amsterdam that there aren’t even offices or assigned desks for senior employees.

According to a press release the benefits of coworking and hotdesking to Microsoft are clear:

• A 30% reduction in real estate costs
• Increased productivity
• Enhanced market reputation and ability to attract and retain top talent
• Increased employee mobility
• Benefits for the environment

Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft Windows Division President,  recently unveiled the newest version of Windows, known as Windows 8. The release was done at the BUILD conference in Anaheim California to an audience of developers.  Sinofsky called Windows 8 a “bold reimagining” of the platform, saying that 1995 was the “last time Windows underwent a significant bold overhaul.” One can only imagine this new approach is an attempt to combat the dominance of Apple. Will it work? Only time can tell!

In a nutshell the key points of the Windows 8 experience are:

• Fast and fluid user experience
• Immersive and full-screen
• Touch first with full keyboard and mouse
• Web of apps working together
• Experience for all PC devices and architectures

Microsoft has recently briefed Studio O+A to create a new office space which breeds innovation. The outcome – The Garage of Innovation. This Microsoft office space is designed to allow employees to flex their creative muscle, often key in the cut throat tech industry! Employees will be given access to all sorts of cool new “toys”, including 3D printers, laser cutters and soldering benches.

“It took six months to remodel the 60,000 square foot building. Now, the building has huge open gathering spaces and plenty of new windows to let in daylight. Sprinkled around the building are new “pods,” temporary work spaces where teams of two, three, or five employees can set up shop to collaborate on projects for weeks at a time.”

[Via]

Microsoft has developed a new concept keyboard, which it calls the “Adaptive Keyboard”.  This is just a prototype, and unfortunately there are no immediate plans to turn it into an actual product.  The keyboard seems particularly suited to professionals who can often feel that the standard keyboard is either too cramped or limited for their requirements, thereby decreasing productivity. Addressing such issues, the keyboard is able to adjust content according to the context in which tasks are being performed. In addition, at the top of the device there is an integrated touch sensitive screen which allows for additional functionality.

Below is a video for this year’s UIST Student Innovation Contest.  Microsoft will given free rein to students to do whatever they like to the keyboard, with a prize at the end for the most innovative ideas.

We’ve seen the multitouch capabilities of the iPhone; we’ve seen a similar thing on the trackpad of MacBook Pro, and we’ve seen a camera driven multitouch solution on Microsoft’s elusive Surface. Now, all those technologies suddenly seem to have converged in a bunch of conceptual multitouch mice, courtesy of Microsoft.

In the video below, you can see several of Microsoft’s engineers showing off several entirely different devices. While one mouse’s surface detects touch and movement, the other does the same thing with a camera, and the weirdest of them all consists of several connected mechanical parts which you can move almost independently on one another.

For the end user, all of this means being able to do cool things like pinch, rotate, zoom, and flick on your desktop computer, just by using your mouse. While some of the gestures displayed in the videos look awkward, others seem quite natural; I’m sure we’ll see some of these technologies in the devices we use everyday really soon.

[ Article source : CrunchGear ]

Microsoft has today officially launched web-based versions of its Office 2010, which Microsoft is calling Office Web Applications. These web-based applications will be a part of Windows Live Skydrive which is an online file storage service (25GB) provided by the Microsoft itself. This is clearly Microsoft’s answer to the Google Apps, which is Google’s online office suit. Microsoft has been under a lot of pressure since Google released Chrome OS which further took away market share of IE. It runs fine on all the modern web-browsers including IE, Firefox and Safari. Chrome is currently not supported, but a version that would support it is in the works. Support for Opera is nowhere mentioned. Oh, we forgot to mention the best part about it: it is FREE!

source: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/

As of two days ago, Microsoft has been indeed confirmed to be the new owners of the Office.com domain. The transition of this valuable domain from its previous owners ContactOffice Group – an European company specializing in virtual office solutions since the late 90s – to Microsoft seemed to have occurred on August 4 2009 as the domain’s Whois record notes.

TechCrunch

It’s just been confirmed that the upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 is in the private testing phase right now. Office 2010 is Microsoft’s newest update to their Office application suite, and it includes free online versions of all of its apps.

Online applications will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Anyone with a Microsoft Live account can use them. This much we’ve known for a few hours. What’s new is the fact that we now know that the actual app suite itself is now in the “Technical Preview” phase of development. There will be an invitation-only testing of the product by thousands of selected users. Of the changes coming to office, PowerPoint video editing and the option to ignore threads in Outlook appear to be the biggest ones. Microsoft’s also added in a Backstage view, which will supposedly make it much easier to prep a document for publication. From what screenshots I’ve seen, the new Office does look pretty spectacular. It’s a pity that only a few thousand testers get to play with it right now.

Apparently the Technical Preview for Office 2010 has leaked onto the Internet. Read more about this here.

We’ll be honest. Vista came along and brought us no convincing arguments whatsoever to upgrade our consistently stable workhorse XP PCs at our offices here on Unplggd. Now, after giving their beta a shot (and being quite impressed that we were able to run it just fine off an old Pentium III collecting dust in our closet), we feel like our 8-year old XP deserves a befitting upgrade.

This chart pretty much simplifies the upgrade process in case you need it. We like the Professional edition since it allows you to emulate non-supported Windows 7 applications and run them like they’re still in XP. Otherwise, sticking with the Home Premium edition would be your best bet. Officially announced a few days ago, Vista and XP users will need to pony up $119.99, $199.99, or $219.99 on October 22 to score their Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate upgrade. Full retail will run you $199.99, $299.99, or $319.99.

The good news? Amazon (as well as numerous retailers around the country including Best Buy, Costco, Fry’s Electronics, Office Depot, Office Max, Sam’s Club, Staples, Tiger Direct, Walmart, and more) is allowing you to preorder the upgrade bundle for cheap. So, given supplies haven’t dried out yet, you can grab the Home Premium Upgrade and Professional Upgrade packages right now for $49.99 and $99.99 though July 11th. It’s the cheapest OS upgrade we’ve ever seen and has our thumbs up of approval. So, what are you waiting for?

source: Unpluggd

Microsoft has AGAIN made the decision to extend the availability of its Windows XP downgrade option. Reason this time? “Licensing issues with Windows 7 could cause some serious headaches for businesses that are still using XP”. Microsoft has also announced that XP downgrade option will be available for 18 months after the official release of Windows 7.