LOGO HISTORY OF MICROSOFT

Microsoft recently got a new logo, after as many as 25 years. However, this is not the first change for Microsoft logo. Microsoft has updated its logo five times in its 37-years of history. 

The history of other four logos is more interesting. The two decades of seventies and eighties are famously known as Disco era and their impression could be seen on Microsoft's first logo which spelt the company's name in two lines with 'Micro' in the upper line and 'Soft' below.

Microsoft's second logo was green in colour and spelt the word Microsoft in one line with all characters in upper case. The 'O' of the Micro had lines on it and employees nicknamed the logo as Bibbet. In fact, after 12 years when Microsoft wanted to change the logo, many employees are said to have protested and even ran campaigns to save it.

The next logo, which was introduced in 1987, was called Pacman logo. Designed by Scott Baker, the logo got its name from the wedge-shaped cut made on the letter 'O' of the word Microsoft. Except the letter 'M', all other letters were in lowercase and italicized. The year 1994 saw a tagline being added to the logo. This was later changed in the year 2006.

NOW AN APP TO BEAT UP TRAFFIC JAM

The app called SignalGuru predicts when a traffic signal is about to change, and the speed that should be driven when approaching an intersection in order to cruise through without stopping.

"The stop-and-go pattern that traffic signals create increases fuel consumption significantly," said Emmanouil Koukoumidis, the scientist behind the app.

When approaching an intersection, the camera on a driver's dashboard-mounted smart phone is activated, which detects when a signal transitions from red to green and vice versa.
Using this information, the app determines the speed that should be driven to avoid stopping at a red light on the cusp of turning green, or a green light just shy of turning red.
"It tells the drivers that 'if you drive at 30 miles per hour then you'll be able to cruise through without stopping,'" explained Koukoumidis, adding that the speed recommended is always within legal speed limits.
Currently the group is looking for industrial partners to commercialize the software. They also plan to implement other safety features, such as thresholds on deceleration, before making it accessible to the public.

APPLE RELEASES EAR HEADPHONES WITH REMOTE AND MIC FOR iPod AND iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO: With the launch of iPhone 5, Apple on Wednesday also unveiled headphones with a 'breakthrough design'. The white earbuds that ship with all of Apple's portable devices are getting an update. Now called "EarPods," they're tube-shaped, which Apple said will help fit the shape of the ear.

They'll go on sale Wednesday as a stand-alone accessory but will be included free with new devices out in October.

The Apple EarPods will be included with the new 5th generation iPod, 7th generation Nano and the iPhone 5. It can also be bought standalone.

GOOGLE DROPS ITS SUPPORT FOR IE8 FROM NOV. 15 !

Google will drop support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) for its online apps and services in mid-November, effectively ending support for many users of Windows XP.

"Internet Explorer 10 launches on 10/26/2012, and as a result, we will discontinue support for Internet Explorer 8 shortly afterwards, on 11/15/2012," the company wrote on a blog. "After this date, users accessing Google Apps services using Internet Explorer 8 will see a message recommending that they upgrade their browser."

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Because IE8 is the newest Microsoft browser that runs on Windows XP, and because Google had previously abandoned IE7 and IE6 -- the other versions that run on XP -- the move significantly impacts Windows XP users locked into Internet Explorer by corporate or organization policies.

Neither IE9, which Microsoft launched in March 2011, or IE10, which will debut alongside Windows 8 in late October, runs on Windows XP.

After Nov. 15, users running IE8 may have trouble with some features in Google Apps. And if past practice is any clue, other sites and services, including Gmail and Google Calendar, may also be affected. At some point, those apps may stop working entirely in IE8.

This wasn't the first time that Google has warned users to upgrade to a newer browser. In July 2011, the company said it would dump IE7 from its list of supported browsers; in January 2010, it announced it would no longer support IE6, Microsoft's 2001 browser.

Google's policy is to support only the current version of a browser, and its immediate predecessor. Giving up on IE8, however, is markedly different than dumping IE7. Last year, when Google said it would stop supporting IE7, that edition accounted for just 7 percent of all browsers used worldwide, according to Web analytics firm Net Applications. IE8, on the other hand, was the most widely-used browser edition in the world last month, with a usage share of 25 percent. Of those who ran one version or another of IE, nearly half, or 47 percent, ran IE8 in August.

Windows XP faces its own end-of-life cutoff; Microsoft will serve users with that operating system's final security update in April 2014. But like IE8, Windows XP remains a major presence. Last month, Net Applications measured XP's global usage share at 42.5 percent, just behind the three-year-old Windows 7's 42.8 percent.

Google is the first major online software maker to drop 2009's IE8 from a support list. Microsoft, for instance, has committed to supporting IE8 on Windows 7 until 2020.

IE8 users, particularly those running Windows XP, can switch to another browser, including the most recent versions of Mozilla's Firefox, Google's own Chrome or Opera Software's Opera, to run Google Apps.

The end-of-support plan for Google Apps will not disrupt access to its search site using older browsers.

Adobe Photoshop Future Versions Will Not Support Windows XP

There’s bad news for those who are still stuck in 2001!

Adobe has issued an official statement that the next version of Photoshop will not be compatible with Windows XP. Microsoft released XP back in 2001 and for the last few years, has really been pushing people to upgrade to the newer OS.

Tom Hogarty, Adobe Product Manager, said in a blog post "The Photoshop team would like to provide advanced notice that Photoshop CS6 (13.0) will be the last major version of Photoshop to support Windows XP.” He justifies the move by explaining that the newer versions of Photoshop are very performance sensitive and therefore require modern hardware and graphical interface, which XP doesn’t provide.

“Leveraging advances available on newer operating systems and hardware allows us to deliver significantly better performance, and focus our innovation efforts around the areas of the greatest benefit to our customers. Photoshop CS6 already demonstrates that relying on a modern operating system, graphics cards/GPUs and graphics drivers can lead to substantial improvements in 3D, Blur Gallery and Lighting Effect features not available to Windows XP customers. The team hopes that by providing this information early it will help you understand our current decisions around operating system support and where we we're headed with future releases of Photoshop. We encourage all customers who are currently using Windows XP to begin making their migration plans now so they can fully take advantage of future Photoshop innovations as soon as they are available.”

Adobe has already dropped support for Lightroom on Windows XP, so the move to discontinue Photoshop isn’t unexpected. 

SMACK YOUR PHONE UP - MICROSOFT'S NEW PATENT

Microsoft has filed for a patent on a new technique that allow users of mobile devices to silence them by delivering a firm whack.

Patent application 20120231838, aka CONTROLLING AUDIO OF A DEVICE, aims to patent:

“A method comprising: in a mobile communications device: receiving information indicative of acceleration of the mobile communications device; determining correlation between the information indicative of acceleration of the mobile communications device and exemplar whack event data; and based at least on the correlation, controlling an audio signal of the mobile communications device.”

The need for such a control mechanism, the application argues, comes from the fact that:

“There are a variety of circumstances under which it may be desirable to quickly control a device without having to interact with a traditional user interface. For example, often mobile device users forget to set their mobile devices in a silent or vibrate mode and the device rings or makes sounds at an inopportune moment.”

Microsoft's answer is to allow “a whacking of the mobile device”, as illustrated below, in order to deliver such a jolt to a device's accelerometer that it switches off audio output.

The patent application notes that leaving the accelerometer on will drain battery life and therefore proposes switching on the motion-detecting widget only once the audio player is started.
One item left open to interpretation is just what constitutes an audio-cancelling “whack”, as opposed to a warranty-voiding blow of another type.
The application does mention variable thresholds before whacks translate into action.
Those thresholds will, we imagine, need to be spelled out very precisely before this patent makes it into real devices, lest punters whose phone screens have shattered insist “I just gave it a whack” as they queue for free phone repairs.

INTEL WANTS TO MAKE PASSWORD OBSOLETE

Aiming to do away with the need to remember passwords for growing numbers of online services, Intel researchers have put together a tablet with new software and a biometric sensor that recognizes the unique patterns of veins on a person's palm. 

"The problem with passwords -- we use too many of them, their rules are complex, and they differ for different websites," Sridhar Iyengar, director of security research at Intel Labs, said at the annual Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Thursday. "There is a way out of it, and biometrics is an option." 

Iyengar demonstrated the technology, quickly waving his hand in front of a tablet but not touching it. Once the tablet recognizes a user, it can securely communicate that person's identity to banks, social networks and other services where the person has accounts, he said. 

Making laptops, tablets and smartphones responsible for identifying users would take that requirement away from individual websites and do away with the need to individually enter passwords into each of them, Iyengar said. 

"We plan to work with service providers to take full advantage of this," he said. 

A device using the technology would use built-in accelerometers to detect when a user puts it down, and would then log its owner off to keep unauthorized people from getting in. 

The palm-identification technology was one of several demonstrations during a keynote address by Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner at the forum. Rattner runs Intel Labs, which focuses on identifying and solving future technology problems. 

Rattner also showed prototype technology to improve cell-phone base stations and to efficiently and wirelessly connect devices such as printers, tablets and monitors throughout the home. 

He debuted a prototype microchip with wifi technology made with digital circuitry instead of analog, a development that has the potential to lead to major improvements in performance and efficiency. 

The palm-reading technology, still under development, requires new software and biometric sensors built into consumer devices, but does not require the development of any new kinds of chips, Rattner said. 

The technology works much better than the finger-print scanners found on some laptops today, he said.