Easton (The Quince Man Quincy) Royce

Microsoft to advertise Bing in the UK with The Simpsons

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Ever since Microsoft launched its updated search/decision engine, Bing, it has been relentless with the advertising, which has certainly been paying off for the Redmond-based software colossus. The website now has a respectable market share of 9.7%, growing steadily with every month that goes by, though that certainly won't stop...

Bill Gates is no longer the world’s richest

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:40:01 +0000

For as long as most can remember, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman, Bill Gates, has been the richest man in the world. Weighing in at $53 billion, it's easy to understand why. Forbes, however, is reporting the official dethroning of Bill Gates. This is not the first time he's lost the...

Cell phone inventor swaps iPhone for Droid

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:38:01 +0000

Back in 1973, Martin Cooper created something that would change the world forever--the cell phone. The first cell phone may not have been pocketable, but were it not for Martin Cooper and his brilliant invention, we wouldn't be walking around with phones in our trousers. This man deserves a lot of...

iPhone OS 4.0 will support multitasking

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:37:11 +0000

According to AppleInsider, the next version of the iPhone OS, 4.0, will support multitasking, allowing users to switch back and forth between third party applications. The inside source said they have provided a “full-on solution” to multitasking. The much anticipated feature will put the iPhone and iPod touch in-line or...

Google Street View UK now covers 96% of the country

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:42:33 +0000

On Thursday, Google went live with its expanded Street View for the UK. The street level service now covers approximately 96% of the 246,985 miles of thoroughfares. This major update comes on the back of a ruling from the EU that Google can only keep unblurred images for a maximum...

Motorola partners with Bing Search for new Android phones in China

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:58:24 +0000

Motorola said Wednesday that it will be deploying Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android in China. Devices are expected to be available in the first quarter this year with a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on their mobile browser and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration. Motorola says...

OnLive game service to launch on June 17 in the US for $15 a month

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:30:01 +0000

Speaking in an interview with MCV, OnLive Chief Operating Officer Mike McGarvey has confirmed a launch date of June 17 in the United States, with PC and Mac support included day one. Subscriptions for the cloud-based service will cost $14.95 per month with games from THQ, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts...

Sony announces ‘Move’, a motion based controller at GDC

Easton Royce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:29:01 +0000

Sony has launched the motion remote control, called PlayStation Move, for the PS3 at GDC, quoting the price to be “under $100 (US).” The starter kit will come with the PlayStation Eye (camera), the motion remote control and a game. The PlayStation Eye is used to track the motions of...

Mark your calendar: Live blog – Microsoft MIX 2010 keynotes

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:26:01 +0000

It's that time again, next week we'll be group live blogging with the talented and good looking group to bring you the latest from Microsoft's annual MIX 2010 conference. The list contains the very creme de la creme of Microsoft bloggers including: Ed Bott - He's installed and used...

Android growing; other platforms, not so much

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:25:26 +0000

According to Comscore, Android is doing a good job gaining smartphone market share in the US. The statistics cover October of last year, through this past January. According to the numbers, Android saw a 153.57% increase in the number of people using the platform, allowing Android to overtake Palm in...

Feeling the effects of Mapathy? Infinity Ward has the cure

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:05:13 +0000

Infinity Ward has posted a tongue-in-cheek website detailing the horrible affliction of 'mapathy', and how a dose of the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map pack will cure all symptoms. The game’s first downloadable content is a timed Xbox 360 exclusive releasing on March 30 with...

Google adds biking directions to Maps

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:46:23 +0000

On The Official Google Blog, Google has announced the addition of biking directions to Google Maps. The directions work hand in hand with the bike trail data that Google has put together for the US. A lot of work has gone into creating a vast database of available biking routes....

Windows Phone Series 7 gaming shown off (screenshots)

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:38:01 +0000

Yesterday, Engadget received some preferential treatment from Microsoft. As part of the excitement, Microsoft showcased the 3D gaming power of their upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series. The games were built in the new XNA Game Studio 4.0 and show the potential of the new platform. The two games shown off were The...

Use Windows Live Writer from a flash drive

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:36:01 +0000

One of the key features of Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials suite is Writer. Writer gives bloggers the ability to post to their websites with ease. It supports Wordpress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, SharePoint, Community Server, and many other popular services. With Writer, you get an instant preview of what your post...

Microsoft warns of new zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:36:00 +0000

Microsoft has posted a new warning about an exploit that affects its Internet Explorer browser. The zero-day vulnerability, which is already being exploited in the wild, allows for malicious users to install malware on a vulnerable machine. According to CRN.com, the vulnerable “systems include Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on...

Electronic Arts signs publishing deal with “38 Studios”

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:43:13 +0000

Electronic Arts has announced a publishing deal with 38 Studios to bring its first game, currently a role-playing game known as Project Mercury, to the market. "From day one, 38 Studios has been focused on creating the next generation of entertainment experiences that embrace all mediums, including film, television, comics, novels,...

Infographic: Are you obsessed with your cell phone?

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:32:01 +0000

We all know someone who has said “I can’t live without my cell phone”. As the little devices become more powerful each year, the simple fact is that they become more integrated into our lives. Cellphone.org has put together an awesome info graphic that tells the true tale of the...

Rock Band 3 confirmed for holiday release, will “revolutionize” genre

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:30:06 +0000

Speaking on the developer’s Facebook page, Harmonix has confirmed that Rock Band 3 will release this holiday season. Harmonix is developing Rock Band 3 for worldwide release this holiday season! The game, which will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic...

PlayStation 3 to outsell Wii by 2013

Easton Royce — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:18:42 +0000

Sony's PlayStation 3 games console will outsell the Nintendo Wii by 2013, at least according to industry analyst David Mercer of StrategyAnalytics who wrote a short preview of the upcoming "Global Video Game Market Forecast" publication on his blog. In his blog post, the analyst wrote that there will be...

Microsoft starts rolling out new MSN homepage

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:01:20 +0000

Last November, Neowin reported that Microsoft was testing a new design for their MSN homepage. Today, Ars Technica makes known that Microsoft has finally begun rolling it out to users. The roll out will gradually make its way to 100 million US customers over the next few weeks. Microsoft is...

Energizer needs to stick to batteries, software opens your PC to hackers

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:32:01 +0000

Energizer is known for their batteries and not for their software. So, if you have installed the software for the Energizer Duo battery charger to monitor the charging level of your batteries, remove the software immediately. According to Consumerist.com, “if you're using the Energizer Duo battery charger, and have...

Firefox’s upcoming JavaScript engine uses Webkit code

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:30:01 +0000

It's no secret that Firefox, which was once the fastest browser out there, has begun falling behind in the JavaScript speed race. Browsers, like Google Chrome and Opera, now make Firefox seem sluggish by comparison. This doesn't mean that Firefox is slow; but these days, a lot of attention is...

Google adds POP refresh button to Gmail Labs

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:29:45 +0000

Google has made the managing of multiple email accounts through Gmail much simpler. However, there's always been something missing--the lack of push. Let's say you have your Hotmail account set up in Gmail using POP and you receive an email. Depending on the algorithm used by Gmail to fetch from your...

Neowin Giveaway: D-Link DIR-685

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:43:01 +0000

D-Link hooked us up with a DIR-685 and its time that we give this router away! If you didn’t catch the first part of the review, be sure to check it out here. The winner will be announced in the second part of the review which will be...

HP shows off Windows 7 powered Slate UI, including Flash support

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:34:21 +0000

Ever since Steve Ballmer showed off the HP Slate at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, there's been a huge amount of interest in the new device. HP released a new video in late January with Phil McKinney, CTO of HP’s Personal Systems Group. McKinney claimed 2010 is the...

TechNet Magazine March 2010

Easton Royce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:21:28 +0000

There are some great articles in this month’s TechNet Magazine. The theme for this month is about Cloud Computing.

Privacy in the Cloud Computing Era: A Microsoft Perspective
by Microsoft

Microsoft, NSF Open Azure to Researchers
by David Nagel

Can We Secure Cloud Computing? Can We Afford Not To?
by Microsoft BlueHat Blog

Clouds Done Right
by Iqbal Khan

Microsoft to Congress: Time to Seed Cloud Computing
by Wyatt Cash

Chris Jackson also explains how to make your applications compatible with Windows 7 in a virtualized environment using App-V.

Steam coming to OS X in April; no repurchasing required

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:56:02 +0000

Earlier today, the company Valve, famous for its Steam platform and Half-Life series of games (amongst many others) announced that it will be shipping a native OS X version of Steam next month, with some very welcome new additions. Valve let the news out via a press release on its website,...

AT&T cripples its first Android offering; not suitable for devs

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:56:01 +0000

Not even a full day after releasing the Android powered Motorola Backflip, AT&T is being slammed for closing off the Android platform on the device. Last week, we reported that AT&T had stripped Google search from Android, in favor of Yahoo. However, we had no idea of what else was...

Verizon’s LTE rollout becomes a little clearer

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:54:01 +0000

Verizon has come out and revealed some of its plans for the 2010 year with regards to LTE. Their latest press release states that they will deploy LTE in 25 to 30 markets that will cover approximately 100 million Americans. Verizon has also stated the blatantly obvious, 4G is faster than...

Intel investigates counterfeit processors; 300 fake chips [Updated]

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:52:21 +0000

As Neowin reported during the weekend, Newegg shipped out counterfeit Intel i7 processors to customers, where customers received a clay mold of a heatsink, and even a piece of scrap metal as the processor. Intel will investigate why there was counterfeit processors shipped out to customers and exactly how many...

.Net gets Fry’d as Stephen Fry tweets about interview

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:53:29 +0000

In an ironic twist to the news last week that Stephen Fry can take down websites with a single tweet, .net magazine itself was brought down when Fry tweeted a link to the interview in which he discusses his "power". In the interview, Fry talked of how a site tweeted by...

TechSpot: Battlefield Bad Company 2 GPU Performance In-depth

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:17:01 +0000

PC gamers are no strangers to the Battlefield franchise, making its first appearance in 2002 with the multiplayer focused Battlefield 1942. Several other titles and expansion packs have followed in recent years, though Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the direct sequel to a game released in 2008 that only made...

Microsoft demos game across Windows Phone 7, Xbox 360 & Windows 7

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:04:02 +0000

Microsoft has demonstrated seamless and integrated versions of an Indiana Jones game running across Windows Phone 7, Xbox 360 and Windows 7. Eric Rudder, Senior Vice President of Technical Stategy at Microsoft, demonstrated the game at TechEd Middle East 2010 last week in Dubai. Engadget spotted that he demonstrated how the...

Apple airs new iPad TV commercial at the Oscars

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:03:31 +0000

Apple added to the iPad hype on Sunday as it unveiled a new TV commercial during the Oscars awards. The commercial demonstrates most of what we have already seen and know about the iPad. It finishes by signing the advert off with "April 3", the date of the U.S. launch for...

Valve confirms Portal 2 release for Mac OS X

Easton Royce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:19:44 +0000

Valve has been playing various games with the Internet community over the last couple of weeks. The ending to their popular puzzle game Portal was changed, hinting at a sequel, and the company began sending out teasers based on famous Apple ads that have appeared over the years. A couple...

Did Microsoft just rip a logo from Transmit Mac software?

Easton Royce — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:21:21 +0000

Did Microsoft rip the Transmit logo for use in Visio 2010? That's the question we're asking today. Microsoft appears to have ripped and used a logo from popular Mac Software, Transmit 3. The creators of the logo, Panic Software, say they are "bemused" by the rip but have no...

Microsoft: 300 million licenses of Windows 7 in 2010

Easton Royce — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:55:11 +0000

Microsoft has projected that they will sell 300 million copies of Windows 7 in 2010, including the already 90 million licenses sold in the first four months since general availability. The estimate of 300 million copies sold is a fairly high target, but definitely not out of reach for Microsoft,...

Hands On: Dlink DIR – 685 review, part 1

Easton Royce — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:10:03 +0000

Our friends over at Dlink have sent us one of their latest products, the DIR- 685. While this product has been on the market for a little bit, we never pass up a chance for a hands on review, and besides, we will be giving this router away! This...

NeowinCast: Gamers, Episode #3

Easton Royce — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:26:01 +0000

Neowin.net presents NeowinCast: Gamers Episode 3, the third in a new series of Podcasts relating to the latest gaming news and rumors, hosted by Joshua Seed and David Hess (gigapixels). This week’s episode arrives at an hour in length as we discuss current news including a mysterious PlayStation 3 bug,...

Famous in an hour, because of a single tweet

Easton Royce — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 06:24:02 +0000

If you have ever wondered if you can instantly become the next Internet celebrity in an hour, the answer is yes, and it was all done from a single “tweet”. Conan O’Brien changed a girl's life forever, by making her the only person he is following on twitter, and posting...

Newegg ships counterfeit Intel i7 processors to customers

Easton Royce — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:54:34 +0000

Reports from hardwarecanucks are telling a rather interesting story about Newegg shipping customers counterfeit processors. The fake Intel i7 920 processors were delivered to customers, and reports began rolling in yesterday, with a total up to five separate incidents and nine customers in total so far. The fake processors were...

Internet Explorer 6 funeral held, Microsoft sends flowers

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:29:45 +0000

Internet users from all around gathered today to finally lay Internet Explorer 6 to rest, in it’s very own funeral. IE6 (support) was officially killed on March 1, 2010, almost 8.5 years after it’s initial release. IE6 supporters attended the funeral, even with a special gift from the Internet Explorer...

New Microsoft Courier tablet pictures and video leak

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:26:01 +0000

Remember Microsoft's new tablet concept that was revealed last September? Well, the book-like Courier device - or "digital journal" as it has now been labelled - may be on the shelves as early as the second half of this year, according to new information leaked to Engadget. The Courier...

Office 2010 RTM next month, May 12 for Biz – June 15 for consumers

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:24:02 +0000

Microsoft said on Friday that it will release Office 2010 to manufacturing in April and provide businesses with copies of the latest Office suite on May 12. In a company blog posting, Jevon Fark of Microsoft Office marketing, provided some information on the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee. Last month Neowin revealed Microsoft's...

Xbox LIVE policy change, allows users to get more sexual

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:39:55 +0000

Microsoft has finally changed one of its much argued policies for Xbox LIVE, allowing users to express their sexual orientation in their gamertags and profiles. Users have been previously suspended and banned from the Xbox LIVE service, because they would express their sexual orientation in their gamertag and profiles. Microsoft has...

T-Mobile upgrading markets with “Very Fast Mobile Web”

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:52:59 +0000

For the second straight year, T-Mobile has been ranked #1 in customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates. The crown is for the company's overall retail experience--not coverage. However, with recent upgrade news, it seems that T-Mobile is serious about taking the network quality crown too. According to leaked photos at...

Apple iPad goes on sale April 3 in the U.S.

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:56:01 +0000

Apple said Friday that its highly anticipated iPad will be available on April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April. The...

North Korea develops its own Linux OS

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:57:35 +0000

North Korea has developed its own Linux distribution to take on Microsoft. The communist country has never been shy about wanting to separate itself from western technology and ideas, so it should come as no surprise that its now selling its own operating system. According to Networkworld.com, who translated...

Infinity Ward founders fired, sue Activision, war of words commences

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:22:01 +0000

A battle between the founders of Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward, and publisher Activision, which started earlier this week has continued to intensify with the pair filing a lawsuit against Activision. The spat first broke earlier this week, with reports from G4 of a "bunch of bouncer-types" showing up at...

Google adds email notifications to Wave

Easton Royce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:20:56 +0000

Since Google launched Wave back in May 2009, one of the biggest complaints has been the lack of tie-in to email. For a new technology like Wave to catch on, users need to have some sort of backwards compatibility with legacy communication services. This would remove the annoyance of having...