Mortal Kombat X heads to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in 2015
An official teaser for Mortal Kombat X landed on YouTube this morning, which raised as many questions as it answered. Yes, a new installment in the ultra-violent series from Netherrealm Studios is on track for release sometime in 2015. Yes, it’s headed to the PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One, 360 and PC. And yes, that’s Wiz Khalifa bringing his quick-witted lyrics to the original sound track. But what can we say about the game itself? Some of the teaser video almost has an in-game feel to it, with plausible graphics, fantastical moves (including the use of weapons from the environment) and hints of gruesome Sniper Elite-style forensic sequences — but it’s probably all just conceptual at this point. In any case, have a gander for yourself, and be advised that the video isn’t for youngsters. But hey, after nine MK titles, you probably guessed that already.
WhatsApp returns to Windows Phone with new features in tow
Windows Phone users worried that Whatsapp’s devs might be enjoying their Facebook money too much to fix the app can now rest easy. Whatsapp is now back on the Windows Phone Store after a couple of weeks’ absence, and it even comes with new features, including chat backgrounds, better privacy settings and the ability to customize notification tones. Its devs pulled the app from the store after a lot of users reported having serious issues with update 3 for Windows Phone 8 that permanently disabled notifications or caused persistent errors. Just as Microsoft’s Windows Phone guy Joe Belfiore promised on Twitter, though, Whatsapp’s back and ready for more cross-platform messaging.
[Image credit: Luis/Flickr]
[Thanks, Manthan]
For those w Q’s on Whatsapp: they pinged us about an issue that popped on notifications, we’re working with them on a fix. More info soon
– joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) May 22, 2014
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Microsoft
Via: Neowin
Source: Windows Phone Store
Microsoft and ESPN make vital World Cup info pretty to look at
With the 2014 FIFA World Cup just around the corner, Microsoft is now the latest brand to show how it plans to get in on the tournament’s hype. Through a partnership between its Internet Explorer team and ESPN, both parties have teamed up to launch ESPN FC World Cup Essentials. By combining 3D graphics and detailed information pages, this new site aims to do more than just keep you well informed — it wants to do so in a beautiful and very interactive way. World Cup Essentials, which is part of the recent redesign to ESPN FC, will let you easily browse news and scores coming out of Brazil, and narrow them down by team or specific match. To complement this, there are visuals that make the experience a little more enjoyable; swiping from country to country under “Teams” instantly brings up artwork for key players, among other things.
What’s more, you can peruse notable headlines and other interesting details from past World Cups, going all the way back to the very first one in Uruguay (1930). While Microsoft says the website is “perfect for touch on Internet Explorer 11,” ESPN FC World Cup Essentials works with pretty much any browser, both on desktop and mobile devices.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD, Microsoft
Source: ESPN FC
Windows Phone now lets you browse your files
You no longer have to go searching app-by-app to find a buried file on your Windows Phone. Right on schedule, Microsoft has released its Files app; if you’re running Windows Phone 8.1, you can now dig through folders to open and manipulate documents stored anywhere on your device. The interface won’t compare to what you get on your PC, but it should be useful for offloading photos to an SD card or deleteing videos that are chewing up space. If you’re already running Microsoft’s latest and greatest mobile OS, you only have to swing by the Windows Phone Store to give the file browser a spin.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Via: WPCentral
Source: Windows Phone Store
It’s official: Steve Ballmer is buying the LA Clippers for $2 billion
The papers are signed and the deal is done (pending approval by the NBA’s Board of Governors). Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really is buying the LA Clippers (you can say LA Clippys, once) for $2 billion, ow that the NBA, owner Donald Sterling’s wife Shelly Sterling and the Sterling Family trust have resolved their dispute. Donald Sterling announced earlier that he’s filing a $1 billion lawsuit against the league for trying to take away his team after racist statements he made leaked out. Whatever happens with that, as part of the sale agreement his wife and the family trust have indemnified the league against any lawsuits from him.
[Image credit: Noel Vasquez/GC Images]
Source: NBA
Microsoft is building a foot-controlled infotainment platform
Here’s something we didn’t expect: Microsoft is developing a projector-based infotainment system that you manipulate with your feet. Really. We found Microsoft’s Project Ripple at the Augmented World Expo, but it seemed better suited to the local mall. The company admits it’s similar, but told me that what we see in public today isn’t living up to its potential. Project Ripple just might.
There’s truth in those words: most of the mall projector games we see consist of one “screen,” coming from above — but Ripple ads a second projector in front of the user’s eyes. This second display is controlled by Kinect-translated hand gestures. This makes the platform more versatile, Microsoft tells us, it can be used to deliver information, create interactive ads or could be used to give presentations at special events.
Ultimately, Redmond is leaving the utility up to the users. Project Ripple is a going to be a free, open-source platform — not a product. Microsoft is building a free drag-and-drop editor to create new custom experiences and menus, with support for Flash, HTML, PPT and video content. Sadly, Microsoft’s demos at the show were fairly basic: simple match games, a Shoots and Ladders clone and some simple slideshows. If there’s potential in this floor-projected presentation platform, it’ll probably come from the community. Check out the video above to see it in action.
Source: YouTube
Microsoft’s UK Store will now sell you a Windows Phone
It’s weird to think that before Microsoft spent a few billion euros to acquire Nokia’s smartphone division, it didn’t sell Windows Phone handsets directly on its online UK store. Now that Nokia is officially part of the mothership, Redmond has begun getting its house in order and has made three Nokia smartphones available to buy direct. This means you can order the Windows Phone 8.1-powered Lumia 630 for £129, the Lumia 1320 for £329 and Nokia’s current flagship, the Lumia 1520, for £549. A quick shop around might let you pick up the two older smartphones for less, but if you’re looking to get a new Windows Phone direct from the source, Microsoft’s got you covered.
[Image credit: sonson, Flickr]
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft Store UK
LA Times: Steve Ballmer agrees to buy the LA Clippers for $2 billion
So what’s Steve Ballmer up to now that Satya Nadella is running things at Microsoft? According to the LA Times, he’s just made a tentative agreement to buy the Clippers for about $2 billion. After NBA commish Adam Silver (pictured above, with Ballmer at a Clippers game on May 11th) announced the league will force current owner Donald Sterling to sell the team after racist remarks he made leaked out, a number of potential bidders have appeared. According to the Times report, Ballmer bit out several other bids, including one from a group led by entertainment exec David Geffen for $1.6 billion. The ex-Microsoft CEO has a reported net worth of between $15 – $20 billion, so he can certainly afford it, with change left over to switch the mascot to something more familiar. There’s no official announcement of the deal, and according to TMZ, negotiations are still under way with several bidders. Others like Grantland / ESPN’s Bill Simmons are hearing the deal is just about done, with caveats that there are several hurdles before it’s approved.
[Image Credit: Noel Vasquez/GC Images]
Source: LA Times
Ditching the MacBook Air for Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3
I, like many others, participated in what could be called the unofficial Surface Pro 3 challenge: trading in my regular laptop for the company’s new device for a week, with the intent of doing all my work on the new notebook-tablet hybrid. Well, here I am, six days in, back writing on my MacBook Air. I didn’t want to give up or cheat, but there are deadlines to meet, and I simply don’t have enough hours in a day to pound out posts on the Pro 3′s flimsy Type Cover keyboard.
Those may sound like fighting words, placing me firmly in the “not a fan” camp when it comes to Microsoft’s latest, productivity-focused product. But I actually think this is a great device for everything except typing. For someone who writes for a living, the Pro 3 is — for lack of a better description — a great laptop that’s just missing its keyboard.
I have the $999 model, with a Core i5 processor and 128GB of storage, and the Type Cover that will retail for an additional $130. That’s not cheap, but this is supposed to be your laptop and your tablet, and Redmond has refined the design a ton compared to the previous generation. Though the keyboard itself is mushy, with barely any travel, the trackpad is actually quite solid this time around. Microsoft made it bigger than the version on the Surface Pro 2, for one thing, and gestures such as swiping and pinch-to-zoom work well. The only glitch came on the day when two-finger scrolling stopped working, and the problem couldn’t be solved with anything short of a full system update. Harmless enough, I suppose, but I did spend about an hour trying to fix the issue by tinkering with settings in the control panel to no avail.
It’s a great laptop that’s just missing its keyboard.
I encountered one other strange bug while using the Surface Pro 3 on a flight: The WiFi driver appeared to be missing until I rebooted the machine. After that, I was able to connect to Gogo, but the problem itself was pretty confusing. It’s a lot easier to forgive such hitches in a tablet, rather than a laptop, too. If Microsoft has its way, this is the only gadget you’ll be traveling with, and it would be a pretty big problem if critical functions weren’t working reliably.
Speaking of using the Pro 3 on a plane, the kickstand design was a bit difficult to handle with a tiny tray table; it would only fit if I propped it up at a very steep angle or titled it to the right or left. Luckily, though, the machine’s made to be comfortable in your lap — remember that whole “lapability” spiel at the Microsoft event last week? — with a magnet system that allows the Touch Cover to be used at an angle.
Finally, that 12-inch, 2,160 x 1,440-pixel display is gorgeous, and I especially enjoyed it when watching HD video. Watching something in standard resolution, on the other hand, wasn’t as great; an episode of the original House of Cards streamed on Netflix looked soft and pixelated. It’s the same problem you’ll encounter with any high-res screen like Apple’s Retina panel, though, and I’m certainly not complaining that Microsoft made this one so bright and crisp.
Over the course of six days, I wrote countless emails, sent several tweets and wrote one Engadget post on the Surface Pro 3. The fact that I could do that much says a lot about how much progress Microsoft has made in its quest to reduce our dependency on two separate gadgets: one for work and one for play. That said, I still had to cheat when I needed to get work done quickly. If I had copious amounts of time and patience, I could probably train myself to be a great typist on the Surface Pro 3′s keyboard cover. I have neither, though, so that’s why I won’t be packing the device when I leave for a work trip tomorrow.
Surprise: Microsoft’s working on a smartwatch of its own
Apple’s reportedly working on one, Google’s developing an entire ecosystem and hundreds of smaller companies either have products already on the market, or currently under development. The question isn’t who’s building a smartwatch, it’s who isn’t building one. And as expected, you can count Microsoft out of that latter camp. The software giant turned computer manufacturer is working on its own wearable concoction (not pictured above), according to a Forbes report, with Kinect engineers even pitching in with the project.
The unannounced device will reportedly collect health data day and night, such as your heart rate, and will work with Android, iOS and Windows Phones alike. It’s also said to sport a design similar to Samsung’s Gear Fit, a color touchscreen facing a wearer’s wrist and a two-day battery. Opening the device up to multiple platforms would be a key selling point, and continuous monitoring could make the Microsoft wearable a fit for casual users and fitness buffs alike.
Filed under: Wearables, Microsoft
Source: Forbes
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