Here’s what we are watching:

• Just days after Facebook had it’s IPO, Microsoft has quietly released their weird social network, So.cl, which was seen previously last year. A number of TECHGEEK editors are on there right now from the beta, but I don’t believe any of us use it. So.cl is, according to Microsoft, an ”experiment in open search” and you can login right now to the new service with your Facebook or Windows Live accounts.
• Samsung’s answer to Siri, S Voice, which was expected to release on the Samsung Galaxy S III, has been leaked, and works with, for plenty of other Android phones. And just in case you thought Samsung had learnt from their battles with Apple, then you should really see some of the screenshots which look almost identical to Apple’s iPhone 4S virtual assistant, Siri. If you’d like to see Samsung’s photocopy of Siri in action, you can check out the APK here.
• Meanwhile, last night was a bit of a slow news day, so may I recommend you check out The Verge’s Paul Miller’s latest foray into the offline world. It’s an interesting experiment, and it’s great to see his updates.

Available for pre-order today comes the Halo 4 Limited Edition, packed with additional content to maximise your multiplayer experience, the Limited Edition will surely drop the jaws of many Halo fans.

Denouncing a Legendary Edition for the game, 343 explained that their main focus was on one special edition, rather than multiple editions. The reason for that is to give gamers an easier choice when buying the game. Do players want the stand-alone game, or the game plus a large handful of goodies?

Encased in a UNSC themed box, the Limited Edition comes with a whole lot of additions mainly for Infinity, the name of Halo 4′s Multiplayer experience. These Include:

War Games DLC Map Pack Access

Presumably a season pass to Halo 4 DLC Maps, this pass will give players access to 9 multiplayer maps (3 future multiplayer map packs), showing off new locations in the Halo universe.

Specializations

Unlocking new customisable options for your in-game Spartan, everyone will be able to access specializaions, but for those purchasing the Limited Edition, 6 specializations will be given to you early, giving you a head start for War Games. More information about specializations will be announced at E3, but it looks to me as if they act as ‘perks’ for your loadout, giving your spartan more ammo clips, or an extra grenade, changing up the gameplay.

UNSC Infinity Briefing Packet

Much like Halsey’s Diary in the Halo Reach Limited Edition, Halo 4 Limited edition will also include a packet/book of information based on the Halo universe, including Spartan armor customization schematics, information about UNSC weapons, an introduction to the UNSC Infinity, and an insight into the Spartan-IV program. Fans of the Halo story will especially enjoy this packet of informaion that provides ‘a glimpse into the indoctrination of Spartans aboard the Infinity’.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Special Edition

Recently announced Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn live action series, will be included in this edition of Halo 4 with additional scenes and special features. This live action series will take fans back to the Human/Covenant war, where Master Chief inspires a young cadet, who eventually becomes the leader aboard the largest UNSC vessel, Infinity

Bonus digital content through Xbox LIVE

The Limited Edition also includes:

• A unique in-game Spartan-IV armor skin
• A unique in-game weapon skin for the Assault Rifle, yes! weapons skins/ customisation is confirmed, I’m assuming it will follow similarly to Gears of War 3′s weapon skins.
• An exclusive in-game Emblem
• Xbox LIVE Avatar Prop
• Xbox LIVE Avatar Spartan IV armor set.

The Standard and Limited editions are available for pre-order today, Halo 4 will be released worldwide on November 6th. Are you guys excited?

Looks very cinematic, doesn’t it? Microsoft has unveiled the multiplayer hub for Halo 4, called Halo Infinity Multiplayer. The entire hub is based around the UNSC Infinity, and you’ll be able to create your own custom super-soldier, and progress your carrier throughout its own story.

343 Industries is taking a new approach with its Spartan Ops storyline. Released in a series of weekly installments via Xbox LIVE, it will intersect the main storyline on Halo 4 and center around the leaders of UNSC Infinity and a new team of Spartans known as “Majestic Squad”. These missions can be played with up to three friends, or by yourself, and will be available for free for all Halo 4 users.

Another new feature is ‘War Games’, which is the “competitive multiplayer modes” for Halo 4. Though Microsoft has not revealed any more details on it, we can only assume that it will still be the Red vs Blue style of combats.

Microsoft is also touting that it has a “vastly expanded suite of new multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armor abilities, a new loadout and player progression system”, and you will be able to modify your armor for the first time.

Halo 4 is set to come out internationally on November 6. You can see the gallery below.

Confirmed by Franchise Development Director, Frank O’Connor, this will be the box art for Halo 4. The image shows Master Chief crouching next to what is left of the UNSC frigate, Forward Unto Dawn, and behind is the entrance to the shield world Requiem.

Also in recent news, images were leaked showing off some of the new toys from the Halo franchise, two of these figures were completely new and could be seen as the new enemies or wildlife in Halo 4. Dubbed the “Crawler” and “Watcher“, these figures give us an insight on the threats that we may encounter on Requiem, as well as the new gameplay that these ‘enemies’ may bring to the game. With the crawler looking to be a vicious canine-like enemy, and the watcher, possibly similar to the covenant Drone and may alert others of your position, these enemies are an interesting addition to Halo 4′s line-up of characters.

Along with these two new enemies, figures of Master Chief, an Elite Zealot, a Grunt Storm, and Spartan Warrior were shown. The toy box art also hints a “Deluxe boxed figure of an enemy unlike anything before!“, hopefully this new enemy will make an appearance at this year’s E3, along with more features of the game. Halo 4 will be released on November 6th by developers 343 Industries, and will be the start of a whole new Halo trilogy.

Bing, for some reason, has a different look for its search results when you switch to the US version. It has a more ‘Metro’ look with plenty of whitespace and not that horrible gradient at the top – like every other international version of the search engine. Well, now, it’s getting some new things – and like usual, will only be available to the United States.

Sort of annoying since I just realised that Bing had a new design and compared it with the Australian edition – and it’s far much better.

Bing is introducing a third column on its design – dubbed the “Sidebar”, it lets you interact with your Facebook friends and ask them questions based on search results. So, if you’re looking for a restaurant or hotel, you can ask your friends (it’ll even suggest who to ask) for some suggestions, or will find people who are ‘influential’ about the topic on Twitter, FourSquare, Quora, Google Plus or Blogger. It will also let you keep up with what is happening with your friends on Facebook.

It will also introduce a new “Snapshot” feature – relevant information about what you are searching and condense it down, and will also be used to do some of the more commonly attempted tasks on Bing, such as maps and restaurant bookings.

Microsoft has also said that it has improved the search results so that “consumers can perform traditional Web searches faster, with more relevant results using the new, cleaner user interface,” according to its press release.

And if you’re scared about privacy, Microsoft reassures its users that it has put in place policies to protect your privacy. “We have implemented technologies that provide relevant results while maximizing protection for your data and your privacy. When using Bing and signed into Facebook, Bing will only surface content your friends could access by viewing your Facebook profile directly,” Derrick Connell, Corporate Vice President for Bing, wrote on a blog post.

Take that as what you want it to mean.

Users in the United States will be getting it in a couple of days, while mobile devices will get the new Bing features in a couple of weeks. And like I said before, international users are most likely not going to see these things – because Bing is focused on being a US-centric search engine, despite the fact that Windows Phone, which uses Bing, is much more global.

I’m more surprised by the fact that this was its ‘first time’ ever, but users on Xbox Live will be soon able to watch Microsoft’s E3 briefing LIVE when the big gaming event happens in June. The briefing will also be broadcast on television on US channel SPIKE.

The news was broken by Major Nelson, or Larry Hryb.

And yes, Microsoft has gone on and said that this will be WORLDWIDE – and that does include Europe, Australia, and Asia. It has been confirmed by this little tweet by SPIKE’s Geoff Keighley:

And yes, we will be streaming the Xbox briefing worldwide, as well as over 17 hours of live coverage from E3. Even bigger than last year!

May 4, 2012 2:03 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffkeighley

Geoff Keighley

The event will be streamed starting at 9:30am Los Angeles time on June 4, or 2:30am Melbourne time on June 5. Darn those time zones.

This is banned in Germany - with Windows 7

A patent dispute between Motorola and Microsoft has now escalated with a German court ruling that the Xbox 360 cannot be sold within the country. Also included in the banned list include Windows 7, Internet Explorer and the Windows Media Player.

The dispute between the two companies is over video compression technologies over the H.264 video codec – a widely used standard when recording video. Most likely, your digital camera, or the camera on your phone will use H.264 video compression. The case, originally started in the United States, has now spread across Europe.

And in a twist in the tale, an earlier US judgement could see Motorola unable to enforce the injunction in Germany. “Our business in Germany will continue as usual,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. Microsoft also intends to appeal the ruling. As well, according to MCV, Microsoft moved its European distribution centre from Germany to the Netherlands.

Abuse of Patents?

Motorola, however, is being investigated for potentially abusing its position of holding those patents by the European Commission – which was sparked after both Apple (who is also being sued by Motorola) and Microsoft complained. The main problem that both companies had was that they claim that Motorola wasn’t offering its patents – essential to H.264 video – under FRAND.

FRAND – or Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory – is where a company who holds patents that are deemed essential to a standard must offer a licensing agreement that is “reasonable” and should not harm innovation. In addition, a company should not offer a price that is different to other companies.

Florian Mueller, an intellectual property lawyer and writer of the brilliant FOSS Patents blog (which analyses patent law and lawsuits), has written extensively on this issue and believes that they do have an obligation under FRAND. Writing today:

Motorola actually has an obligation to make licenses to those patents available to all implementers on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, but instead of honoring its promise and complying with applicable antitrust laws, it demanded royalties that would amount, in a conservative estimate, to $4 billion annually. Microsoft obviously didn’t accept those terms, and Motorola didn’t even genuinely expect it to: from the beginning it just wanted to win injunctions in order to force Microsoft into a broad cross-license agreement.

Mueller also believes that the injunction will be lifted; but also notes that Motorola is the only Android device maker to be in litigation with Microsoft, and that it could even pose a problem with its buyout with Google. If the European Commission finds Motorola to have breached FRAND, then it could put a stop to Google’s buyout of Motorola – and we really know that Google only bought them for the patents.

Motorola is going towards an aggressive route, and that could potentially be a bad thing.

Image: Mark Pegrum/OzMark17 via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Apple and Microsoft, among other tech companies, have been called to Canberra to explain why Australians are being charged much more on software, music and games in comparison to other nations, according to a new report.

Wait, Parliament doing something? (Okay, that might not be fair, they have done some good work – such as the R18+ laws)

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, has already signed off on a parliamentary inquiry that will examine the pricing policies of software and “other IT-related materials”. The exact terms of reference on the inquiry have not been finalised, but the price of e-books could be examined if any issues of price differences between Australia and other markets are raised.

Leading the charge for such an inquiry has been Ed Husic, a Labor MP in Sydney, who took issue with the “price discrimination” – citing Adobe’s pricing structure where a digital download for Photoshop CS5 Extended cost $999 in the US, but $1,671 in Australia.

Adobe hasn’t helped itself when it was revealed that the latest edition of Adobe’s Creative Suite programs would see Australians also being charged more – this is despite the fact that the Australian dollar is basically on parity with the United States dollar.

“From my perspective, the most commonsense approach would have been for the companies to set out in their own terms why they price their products in Australia differently from other parts of the world. Instead of doing that, IT vendors have not only remained mute, they keep aggravating Australian consumers,” he said in a parliamentary speech in March.

“Let us be clear about this: IT vendors are demonstrating they will price differently here because we will cop it or they think we will keep quiet about it.”

Talking to SMH, Choice’s spokeswoman Ingrid Just said that they welcomed the move.

“The excuses overseas technology companies used to justify the higher prices, such as the small size of the market, the cost of setting up support centres and the imposition of local taxes and duties, were not acceptable,” she said.

Well, if nothing is resolved, then we can all look forward in many Australians continuing to pirate the software that is overpriced. And trust me, if Australians are fed up of waiting for new series because broadcasters air them later than their American counterparts, or end up pulling them to air in the summer; then they’re sort of fed up with the overcharging as well.

And while Dropbox has an ecosystem, you’d be a bit silly to not move away from that if you want cloud document editing and a web interface that actually can work on its own.

To try and help with your decision, here is a comparison between SkyDrive and Google Drive. As always, it’s completely up to you. I’ve tried to give reasons for using both services, as there are reasons.

 For new users, it creates a hard decision as to which ecosystem to go into if you’re serious about going cloud. There is no definitive option. If you want an API and document editing that tries to replace desktop apps, go Drive. If you want 2GB extra, or 25GB in total if you’ve used it before, and less functional web apps, but more compatible with the desktop version of Microsoft Office, go with SkyDrive. You can still work with Office with Google Drive, but it won’t allow any web editing.

Google Docs has replaced Office for me, for over 2 years now. For what I’ve needed to do for school, I’ve never needed to use Office, bar from more graphically advanced documents. Unless you know you need something in Office, I seriously would recommend going Google as the Google Docs web editors really try to replace desktop applications, something I can’t always say about SkyDrive.

I personally have replaced Office with Google Docs for some time now and have 80GB of space, so Google Drive is what I’ll be using. But, as Terence Huynh proves time and time again, people are different and some may find SkyDrive as better for them. It’s truly up to you. Try them both out and see which one works for you. After all, they’re both available for free. I’d recommend trying to use both for an entire week, and seeing what you can and cannot do.

The service, which has literally been rumoured, and then reportedly killed, over 4 years ago has finally arrived with Google Docs, Google+ and Gmail integration, a better API, 5GB of free storage and native file-syncing, basically like DropBox or SkyDrive offers.

The biggest difference is Google Drive’s ecosystem, which has gained a more acceptable API for viewing and editing your files in other applications, as well as creating files in formats made by developers. Google seriously wants to be your hard drive on the internet, with basically an open storage system that allows any app to store any files. It’s also integrated into Google+ and Gmail, meaning you can add photos to a Google+ post from Drive, and attach files in Gmail using Google Drive.

Google also now offers a range of clients for desktop and mobile (sadly leaving applications like InSync, which tried to make your Google Docs into a DropBox, out in the cold). Right now you can download Windows, Mac and Android apps, with a iOS app coming soon. Linux is not included, but I doubt it will stay that way, with Google almost always supporting the Linux community with services like Google Music.

Sadly, there is bad news. Just like Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Google has changed their prices for storage, greatly increasing prices and changing from a yearly fee to a monthly one. It shows that the two big cloud players were giving you that much storage for free or for a very low price because they knew you probably wouldn’t use it. For example, the US$20 I used to pay for 80GB would now be around US$60 for 100GB. For smaller accounts, 25GB comes in at around US$30 a year. It’s really disappointing to see Microsoft and Google increase prices when they create easier upload options. And both companies, especially Google, should really have offered more storage for free.

A little bit like SkyDrive, users who had already paid for storage will continue to pay the same price until they cancel their subscription or anything else, such as your credit card declining. In this case, your prices will switch to the new prices.

You can head over to drive.google.com right now to switch over from Google Docs, but some users may have to wait a little longer to get access.

Excited about Windows 8? Well, the Consumer Release Preview – the ‘almost completed’ version of the operating system – has a release date. Microsoft has taken to Twitter to say announce that it will be released in the first week of June.

Generally, if a feature stays in the Consumer Release Preview, then it’ll most likely stay. So, if you don’t like the Start Screen and can’t find a way to disable it – good luck convincing Microsoft to change the entire thing.

Though, as pointed out by Slashgear:

In a moment of mild embarrassment, Microsoft admitted that it had gaffed on the logo choice; in the slide shown above, the company has used the old Windows logo, rather than the new, squared off version.

Someone’s in Microsoft’s marketing department is being fired – or Microsoft has decided to keep the old logo.

This could be banned in the US by Motorola

Motorola appears to have an early win with the US’ International Trade Commission against Microsoft and its Xbox 360 console. The ITC has issued a preliminary report that has said that the Xbox 360 did infringe five of Motorola’s patents.

The patents revolve around the H.264 video encoding patents owned by Motorola.

Of course, it’s a preliminary report (via The Verge), meaning that it’s not a final judgement. However, if Microsoft loses the case, it could mean Microsoft will have to license those patents under Motorola’s conditions – as opposed to the FRAND principle, which lets you have a reasonable price to license patents so that you don’t stifle innovation. In Europe, the company that holds patents essential to a standard – like 3G or 4G – must offer it under FRAND.

The ITC could also potentially have the Xbox 360 banned in the United States. It is also going through the European courts, and Microsoft took an unusual step in having a US court ruling that Motorola can’t enforce a ban in Germany.

Yes, that’s massive confusion right there.

As noted before, Motorola is also being investigated by the European Commission after Microsoft and Apple complained that Motorola was using its patents to distort competition. Obviously, they were being sued by Motorola (Apple over its iCloud push email service).

If it has breached those commitments, then Motorola could face a big fine from the European Commission.

But the good news, sadly, comes with bad news. Microsoft has also revealed that, while previous users will still be able to get 25GB, new users will only be getting 7GB.

That’s still a lot of data for Microsoft to be giving away for free, but it really does show that the previous 25GB was just for show, and Microsoft did know that, with the website only, it was almost impossible to fill it up. It’s really disappointing to see this change, especially since many Microsoft fans are happy to see this happen, whereas I would’ve expected people to be disappointed.

You will soon be able to upgrade your storage, but the upgrade page currently only says:

Sorry, other storage plans are unavailable right now. Please check back later.

The Verge’s Tom Warren is saying that storage was expected to arrive as soon as the desktop clients did, with $10, $25, or $50 per year for an extra 20GB, 50GB, or 100GB. He also said that the clients were going to be made available in the coming weeks, but that’s been contracted to right now, possibly a reaction to Google Drive rumours. While the storage plans aren’t yet online, I’d expect it to come soon.

As some may say, I’m being a bit negative with this news. I am. But I really feel that the more we think critically about the things we love, the better they can be. And letting Microsoft do this, without any backlash, will be unfortunate.

For the rest of the week, one eye will be on Google for now, to see whether Google Drive, as rumours suggest, arrives this week, what Google Drive offers comparitively (whether it’s a DropBox clone or not), and to see whether Google Drive’s 5GB limit changes as a reaction to this news. Or to see whether Microsoft can offer competitive storage upgrade prices with Google Storage, which is already shockingly cheap if Google uses the current prices for storage upgrades. Hopefully Microsoft doesn’t mine our data. Oh, wait, sorry, we’re only meant to say things like that about Google.

Microsoft has today announced the editions for Windows 8; and has basically dumped the “Home Basic”, “Home Premium”, “Business” and “Ultimate” editions found on Windows Vista and 7, replacing them with the much more defined “Windows 8″ and “Windows 8 Pro”.

What’s the difference between “Windows 8″ and “Windows 8 Pro”? According to Microsoft:

For many consumers, Windows 8 will be the right choice. It will include all the features above plus an updated Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and the ability to switch languages on the fly…

Windows 8 Pro is designed to help tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies… If you are an enthusiast or you want to use your PC in a business environment, you will want Windows 8 Pro.

Windows Media Center, which has been included in some versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, will now no longer be included. However, Microsoft will bundle it within a “media pack” add-on for Windows 8 Pro – which goes to tell you that not many people knew what it was for. (It was a way to make your PC like a DVR).

Windows 8 Pro also includes BitLocker, Boot from VHD, Client Hyper-V, Domain Join, Group Policy and Remote Desktop. There will also be an enterprise version of Windows 8 – which is essentially the same as Windows 8 Pro, but with features that are more specific for IT organisations. The enterprise edition will not be on sale for consumers.

But, that’s only two? Where’s the third?

The third is Windows on ARM – now known as Windows RT. Why the name RT, we have no idea. But this version will be only installed on Windows PCs and tablets that run on ARM processors, and will pretty much have the same features as Windows 8 – except that it will have Microsoft Office installed, and no Windows Media Player.

In terms of upgrading, those on Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic and Home Premium can upgrade to Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. However, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate users can only upgrade to Windows 8 Pro – meaning that if you want to use the standard Windows 8 version, you’ll have to do a clean install.

You can see all the features in its blog post. No release date or pricing has been revealed as of yet, however.

Microsoft has agreed to buy over 800 patents from AOL, and license the remainder still with the company, in a deal that is worth US$1.056 billion. And since the payment is in cash – this will give AOL a much needed cash injection for its long-term strategy to become a huge online media player.

The deal has pretty much stunned analysts as one told BusinessWeek at the end of March that it could be worth at its “absolute ceiling price” US$290 million.

AOL has not said what the 800 patents sold to Microsoft are in relation to, but it’s a big purchase for Microsoft. And it could have something to do with other companies engaging in patent wars – Facebook recently buying patents from IBM, and Google buying Motorola for US$12.5 billion in order to secure its Android manufacturers against Apple.

via NYT

In some ways, I feel like I’m reviewing a webOS device again (but with much, much nicer hardware). There are all these wonderful ideas at play, but it’s impossible to look past the nagging bugs and missing features.

As a Palm Pre owner, I feel the pain. And as a Windows Phone owner, I see the similarities. But the problem is that webOS was, in its peak, run by a tiny company with little resources. Meanwhile, Microsoft, a massive company can’t keep up with the pack.

Pick up the pace Microsoft. Wow us. Impress us. Or you might never catch up.

And Microsoft seems to think that the problem with their company’s strategy is lack of awareness. That pumping money into ads will fix the problem. Sure, every company uses ads. But Microsoft seems to be pushing old products, instead of making new products. And then, in recent times, it has begun just attempting to slam competitors in online-ads, such as the recent Google attack ads. And these ads are filled with lies. All that makes me see is fear and a lack of confidence in their own services.

Microsoft should learn that no matter how many times I accidentally press the search button on my Windows Phone am I going to start using Bing. No matter how many times I see an ad for Windows Phone am I going to look past the lacking ecosystem and somewhat wasteful interface. And no matter how many times I get told that Windows 8 is the future am I going to forget that it just doesn’t work at all on a Desktop computer. Windows Phone can be improved. Bing can be updated. And Windows 8 is amazing on tablets. But the fixes to these problems are all distant dreams. And the fixes take too long, if you ask me.

Now, before you call me a troll, let it be known that I actually love Microsoft. I do. But there are some very dumb decisions from Microsoft that have lead me to write this post. I love Zune, which has sadly stayed the same for a long time. I tried to love Bing, but the design is old, ugly and the whole functionality of search doesn’t feel as fresh as Google. I love Windows 7. I love Xbox. But I haven’t loved any recent developments from Microsoft, because there are barely any. And new products are either already behind the competition or lack good thought. A brand name, not even one like Microsoft, will help them catch up.

And the big problem is that Microsoft hasn’t grasped the nature of technology today. Tech moves fast. Too fast, some may say. But that’s just what technology is now. And while the rest of the web and companies push small fixes and updates, as well as massive ones, Microsoft continues to treat the web and products like a box of software in a store. Bing truly hasn’t changed in a big way for too long. And “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply. Bing is, by my standards, broken compared to Google. It has no positive differences, it’s uglier and it’s in some circumstances worse. Windows Phone is nice, but 3rd party apps suck and so do Microsoft’s current restrictions for hardware manufacturers. And Windows 8 is going to simply confuse Desktop users with its backwards UI (only on a Desktop, not tablet). Windows Live also hasn’t changed for ages.

And it just looks like Microsoft believes that, because they’re Microsoft and because they have money, then they can just get away with slow product cycles and boring, or broken, final products. Well they can’t.

This isn’t me hating Microsoft. I want cool new things. The Lumia 900 would be great without Microsoft’s restrictive screen-size, processor speed and lacking OS.

Pick up the pace Microsoft. Wow us. Impress us. Or you might never catch up.

I wouldn’t include the Windows 8 Metro UI “minimalism,” which I feel is a little information-overload and wasted space, and is also just not good for desktop-use, but actual distraction-free UI where you get just the basics. No overload, no shiny buttons. Just chrome-less UI that, as Microsoft would put it, is authentically digital.

For my only example, one of my favourite minimalistic UI’s is with text-editors. When you write something with a pen and paper, you grab a clean sheet of paper and just write. But for some reason, over the years, the idea of writing has been transformed to a slow, cluttered and over-complicated mess on computers. It’s like playing Chinese-whispers. Something that can be enjoyable is now a hassle, as seen by the most popular ‘word processers’.

I love writing but Microsoft Word and Google Docs, as well as every other one of these editors, just seem to make it hard to concerntrate with their big, ugly menus and wasted space. Basically, I just want to write without distraction, and nothing from any big companies is doing this, excluding maybe Metro which is still a mistake in the way it acts, not the way it looks. Some people live in Microsoft Word or one of its many clones. But I recently realised that I’ve never actually used many of Word’s functions. I changed to Google Docs because of this, seeing as I love the idea of cloud-editing, but even then Google Docs is still fairly cluttered. It’s still 50X cleaner than Word, but I don’t feel focused inside it. And all I ever use Google Docs for was plain text, excluding some school work.

Which is why I looked around, trying to find a clean, distraction-free text editor. Something that truly feels like a return to the simplicity of pen and paper. No ribbons, no menus, no silly textures (I’m looking at you, Apple): Just pure text on a fullscreen white backdrop with, maybe, a couple of options like font size. And I think I’ve found two amazing solutions.

Right now I’m writing this in Writebox for Chrome. I’ve logged in with Dropbox, so my documents are synced online, and I’ve got it set at size 16 Consolas font. And it’s fun! It’s just made writing fun!

Previously I’ve used iA Writer for Mac (and I think it’s also available for iPad). It’s better than the cloud-editors, because it’s local, but it’s more expensive at around $10 and locked into OS X, an OS that I find rather clunky and weighed down by Apple.

If you want to just write you should definitely check either Writebox or iA Writer out. They’re so nice to use and it’s UI’s like this that are making writing enjoyable again.

And to tie this in with what Windows 8 is doing, I think Microsoft are just taking it a bit too far. See, a text editor should be clean. But not everything can be. There are unanswered questions and too many problems with the new UI that Microsoft cannot fix before a 2012 release. And I feel that they will be stopping changes very soon to polish the OS, meaning that the mess of Windows 8 will be like the mess that was Vista, but on a worse scale. And with the most vocal people on the internet being power-users, then there will be quite an outpouring of anger towards Windows 8 on desktop’s.

Not only is this version improved from the Developer Preview, with 100 000 changes, but it also includes plenty of Metro applications not seen in the previous Preview, such as Mail, Music, Calendar, Messaging, Video and a Marketplace to get more apps.

And anyone can download it right now for free! You can get a 32-bit or 64-bit ISO file or download an update installer executable if you want to replace Windows 7 with the Consumer Preview. You can get the Consumer Preview in English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese and if your computer can run Windows 7, it’ll run Windows 8.

You can click right here to download the preview from Microsoft’s website in ISO, or just click here for the installer file. The download is a little slow, obviously because of the thousands of other people looking to get in on the action, so you might want to leave your computer on for a few hours. I’m only getting 294 kB/s on a connection which usually reaches 1000 kB/s on overseas downloads, so even faster connections will still get a slow download speed.

Good luck with the download and install, and you can check back here and let us know how it’s going whenever you want. And don’t forget to keep looking at TECHGEEK.com.au for the latest Windows 8 news and also listen to TECHGEEK Weekly, our podcast, this Sunday to hear our opinions on the Consumer Preview.

Windows 8 not only bring a whole new interface, but a brand new logo as well. Windows will soon drop the flag that has been synonymous with the brand since Windows 3.1, replacing it with a more Metro-inspired design that actually looks like, well, a window. And brand aficionados have mixed feelings about the new design.

Microsoft announced the change on its blog, and said that they had these goals with the new redesign:

1. We wanted the new logo to be both modern and classic by echoing the International Typographic Style (or Swiss design) that has been a great influence on our Metro style design philosophy. Using bold flat colors and clean lines and shapes, the new logo has the characteristics of way-finding design systems seen in airports and subways.

2. It was important that the new logo carries our Metro principle of being “Authentically Digital”. By that, we mean it does not try to emulate faux-industrial design characteristics such as materiality (glass, wood, plastic, etc.). It has motion – aligning with the fast and fluid style you’ll find throughout Windows 8.

3. Our final goal was for the new logo to be humble, yet confident. Welcoming you in with a slight tilt in perspective and when you change your color, the logo changes to reflect you. It is a “Personal” Computer after all.

Brand New, the blog that deals with redesigns, noted that the use of Segoe doesn’t fit in for the branding. ” It’s a fine font, but pretty it is not. It’s a kind of middle-of-the-road sans serif without any memorable attributes and with a very peculiar “Default” aesthetic to it,” Armin Vit wrote.

“It works best as a user interface ingredient but as the typography on a logo, it’s extremely underwhelming — pair it with the worst rendition yet of the Windows window and you have a real loser,” he continues.

Then we read through the comments, and some like it and others don’t. Personally, I really like the Metro simplicity but it’s a bit awkward to see it when you are so used to the flags – especially the one in the orb from Vista, which paved the way from some Apple criticism (alongside the entire Vista OS in general for copying).

Well, what are your views on the logo?

The launch will come from Mobile World Congress on February 29, US time, from between 3PM and 5PM CET, which is around 3AM AEST on March 1. Being at a mobile conference, the launch could include demos on tablets or possibly even a look at Windows Phone 8.

We already know that the preview will not have a Start button, thanks to fairly realistic leaks, and that the preview will include, thanks to a source from inside Microsoft at The Verge:

• Camera
• Messaging
• Mail
• Calendar
• SkyDrive
• People
• Photos
• Video
• Music

The Music and Video applications are currently under the Zune umbrella and built by the Xbox team, but The Verge is also hearing that Zune will be moved to the Xbox brand before final release of Windows 8. So that might mean that Zune Pass will become Xbox Music Pass, although that’s just me speculating.

All of the preinstalled applications can be updated from the Microsoft Store. The source at Microsoft also said MS wants the Messaging application to support SMS, but it is not known whether they will be able to do this before launch.

Finally, all 3 of you Media Center users might have to put on a brave face, as Microsoft is expected to not update the software, and will be revealing more details about it during the CP. This is part of their effort to turn the Xbox 360 into your TV media appliance. It is also said to be available only in a “premium” SKU of Windows. So possibly Windows 8 Ultimate?

We’ll be here to guide you through the beta as soon as we can, so stay tuned to TECHGEEK.com.au for all the info you need.

I’ve seen my fair share of horrible PowerPoint presentations, and I’ve noticed that they tend to follow common trends. So, I’ve decided to compile what I see from these very bad (and often nightmarish) presentations with my very own knowledge of how I design presentations to give you a guide on the 5 Things To Do when you make are making presentation in PowerPoint.

Also, while it is not included, don’t use WordArt. I’ll tear your presentation to shreds if you do use WordArt.

Above image: Ryan Vaarsi/Flickr (Creative Commons)

1. Make it readable

The biggest thing in PowerPoint faux pas is that you have made it hard to read. Either by making the size of the text too small that no one can see, or making the text and background colours clash that make it impossible to read.

If you are typography nerd, then you would know something about the “Classic Scale”. This makes the readability of your PowerPoint smoother and not awkward. Headings should be the biggest of whatever point from the scale you start at, then the next one down for your dot points.You should stop at 24, because that will most likely be the smallest size when looking far away. Remember, if you can see it close up, and its below 24, then it will most likely not be seen by people far away.

Also, keep your titles and text consistent on each slide. Don’t make one slide’s heading appear big in one slide and smaller in others. They should be all the same. Though, you can slightly deviate from it. Also, key thing – maintain one or two fonts on your presentation. Don’t switch from the Calibri to Arial to Georgia to Wingdings in the same presentation.

For backgrounds, remember yin and yang. If you use a light background, use dark or black colour for text. If you have a dark background, use white or light colour for text. The text needs to stand out from the background.

Also, when in doubt. Keep it simple!

2. Don’t put your ENTIRE speech

Another common faux pas I have seen from people’s PowerPoint presentations is the simple copy and paste job from their speech. Your speech should be on palm cards or in Presenter View (see below), not up on your presentation. The key for a successful presentation is that you are interacting with the audience, not interacting with the screen.

Your PowerPoint is to summarise what you are going to say. However, don’t make the presentation too wordy – because they’ll focus on the screen and not on you; and don’t simply read dot points. The main idea is that these points are the main points that you are talking about. The finer details are in your speech – so they’ll stay focus on you to hear those.

Look at what you see above. It’s simple, and summarise the main points – especially in comparing the two formats of Web Video. It is also not what you see below (and yes, I have seen people do this before).

3. If it’s too long for words, summarise with images

The old saying goes “A picture tells a thousand words” – and in PowerPoint presentations, it holds true. If you can’t summarise something in text, use a picture. They quickly sum up your point to your audience without a wordy explanation. Graphics also are helpful when you are trying to convey something complex.

They can also be used to inject a bit of humour into your speech to keep it a bit interesting (and awake). Take, for instance, these two Ignite speeches. Both use images to highlight their points and keep their audience interested, despite being boring and/or geeky topics to talk about in public.

However, don’t expect to use funny images on the internet if you have to present it to your boss. I don’t think he’ll like seeing Wikipedia’s unofficial mascot, or the Megaflicks logo.

4. Don’t make it too distracting

While it’s great to use images and custom animations – there are several ways they could be distracting. One is simply splurge a bunch of images at the same time, and placing them on top of each other with no clear focus on where your eye should look at. DON’T DO THAT!

Also, don’t make everything a custom animation, where text or images move up, down or in a random part of the screen. From personal experience, I cringe when I see people do that. It’s essentially prolonging the torture of me sitting there waiting for you to move on.

Below is simply the very definition of distracting.

A simple fade on an object – which should be set to “on click”, which we will get to in a moment – will suffice. It means that they will appear at the same time and appear relevant to whatever you are talking about.

5. Use Presenter Tools

One of the best presentations I’ve seen from people are when they have this handy tool (and, of course, combining the tips). This is like a fancier version of simply pressing the left and right keys on the keyboard; but there is one good reason why you should get this. It makes you sound a bit more professional and puts you in control on how the slides move.

Having another person to move the slides, especially one who doesn’t know what to do, is annoying as the person can move to a slide prematurely. Also, again, you have more control on how each slide shows up, making it flow with your speech. And if you are the one in control of the slides, you have more freedom to move around and not simply moving to and from the computer to transition to the new slide or new animation.

Speaking of which, another tool you should use is PowerPoint’s Presenter View – you can find it under the “Slide Show” Tab under the “Monitors” section. This will let you see your current slide, notes and what’s coming up easily. You just need to make sure that you have it set up where the projector shows the PowerPoint slides and your laptop screen shows Presenter View. It’s a great way to keep track of your presentation.

Extra 1: Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

In order to make a good presentation, your speech should be timed with your presentation. So, you should do a dry run to see what works and what does not – and this will let you know what to add, remove or alter before your live performance. As well, timing is important. Keep it short – maybe around 5 minutes if you are doing a short presentation.

We all get nervous, but just keep practicing over and over again in front of your friends – if they allow you to. You don’t have to be the best public speaker in the world to present well, you just need some confidence in what you are saying. And as many say, practice makes perfect.

Extra 2: Don’t copy Wikipedia

Also, don’t copy from Wikipedia. I know this is one of the most obvious things, but DON’T COPY FROM WIKIPEDIA. Do some research once in your own life (via Google or, if you’re weird, Bing), rather than relying on a bunch of editors who managed to make this as their own unofficial mascot (but, I bet 4chan and/or Reddit are proud of them).

Though, if you must – just remove the links. It does make it look obvious. Also, don’t copy big chunks and paste that into your presentation – that is why we have introduced Presenter Mode. You can simply read off that and make yourself sound smart.

Do you have your own tips on how to make a good presentation? We want to hear them. Send them in the comments below.

A threat of a crackdown “like China” by India has forced Google and Facebook to remove content that were deemed offensive to religions in the country. The threat comes after a lawsuit by one person claiming that both companies were violating Indian law.

The decision came after a lawsuit by a Muslim petitioner, Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi; with the court asking all 21 sites listed in the case to file a report within 15 days of content removed.

“The review team has looked at the content and disabled this content from the local domains of search, YouTube and Blogger,” Google spokeswoman Paroma Chaudhry told the Reuters news agency.

The law in question makes content providers responsible for all content that users upload, and they have only 36 hours to take down offensive material if there was a complaint. This was the basis of another successful lawsuit brought by a Hindu petitioner in the High Court. Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo are seeking to appeal the decision.

The Indian Government has been supportive of the move to seek Google, Facebook and others to remove content that are deemed objectionable to religious sentiments.

As Reuters have also pointed out:

While civil rights groups have opposed the new laws, politicians say posting offensive images in a socially conservative country, which has a history of violence between religious groups, presents a danger to the public.

India does have a history of religious conflicts, the last major was in 2008 that saw over 20 killed and 12,000 displaced because of riots. And obviously, they have a right to maintain stability in the country as, after all, a country of over one billion people with all different religious backgrounds can create some instability based on religion.

However, while the Indian Government want to see this implemented by companies, it is realistically impossible to monitor what is uploaded to their servers. The only move they can do is simply be reactive to what is happening, not proactive. It sort of echos the copyright lobby groups who, in SOPA, to make Google responsible to what searches come up or what appears on YouTube that is copyright infringing.

But it also does have a frightening impact on what you can and cannot say. While we can obviously identify what is highly intolerant comments, there are some areas where this can be abused. I mean, take the recent example of a Christian teacher in Perth going to ACMA over a simple 7.30 sketch by Clarke and Dawe. The teacher was offended by this, saying it vilified Christians:

Dawe: A lot of them must realise the damage they are doing?
Clarke: Oh, they do. A lot of them are Christians.
Dawe: So there would be a lot of guilt?
Clarke: A lot of guilt. A lot of denial.
Dawe: Look what they are doing to the asylum seekers.
Clarke: Perfect example. Perfect example.
Dawe: So they’d be blaming each other too, I’d imagine.
Clarke: Blaming everybody. I mean you can’t get anybody to admit to owning up to anything in the whole place.

If you saw the clip, and thank God for ACMA’s finding, it was not offensive to – as ACMA puts it – “an ordinary, reasonable viewer”.

It’s a very fine line, one that any decision should not go too far.

Image: Sudhamshu/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Since Windows 95, Microsoft has included the Start button, a button that opened a list of Applications and Folder shortcuts, in each new version of Windows. While there have been changes, such as the change from the word “Start” to a Windows ‘orb,’ the main functions of the menu have remained the same.

But it now looks like the famous button and menu is on the chopping block thanks to leaked screenshots on PCBeta, a Chinese website which says they’ve been leaked a near-final “Consumer Beta.” Instead of the ‘orb’ seen in Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft will now use a ‘hot-corner’ to open a menu, but the menu will still not be the Start menu seen in Windows 7.

It would be a massive change, but the button never really fit in with the Developer Preview, so maybe it’s for the best.

On another note, why the hell is the Consumer Preview still using the same Aero as in Windows 7 and Vista? If Microsoft wants to switch to Metro, they might as well fully switch.

Not only does Google offer perfectly fine privacy policies, with the claims of this video false (Google AdSense does analyse emails, but in no way is it done or seen by employees), but their Google Apps that you pay for, just like paying for Office 365, have no ads. It’s comparing a free service to a paid service. And Google could easily be the best company to hold your data, with new ways to free it, such as in Google Takeout, where you can export almost all of your data and go somewhere else.

Also, never mind the fact that free Hotmail users probably have the same privacy in regards to ads as free Gmail users, but Microsoft would never let that get in the way of a good story now, would they? Neither would a number of other media outlets.

Either way, the video is below, and if you want some real facts about Gmail and Google, read their blog post. And remember, don’t listening to misinformed people and competitors. They probably just want a page view.

Update: Also, Microsoft also has personalised advertising. So does Facebook. And you can Opt-out to Google and Microsoft’s personalised advertising at any time. Just Google it.