After recently purchasing a number of patents from IBM, Facebook has further strengthened its stance after striking a deal with Microsoft to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it acquired from AOL recently for $550 million.
Microsoft only recently purchased 925 patents and patent applications from AOL as well as a license to AOL’s remaining patent portfolio, which contains around 300 additional patents that were not for sale. The agreement today means that Facebook will obtain ownership of approximately 650 AOL patents and patent applications, as well as a license to the patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own.
Microsoft will still own roughly 275 AOL patents and applications, a license to the 650 AOL patents and applications that Facebook now owns and a license to approximately 300 patents that AOL did not sell in its patents auction originally.
In a announcement made on the Facebook site, the executive vice president and general counsel of Microsoft Brad Smith said that the deal “enables us to recoup half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction.”
The spending spree from Facebook comes after Yahoo! sued Facebook for 10 patent infringement back in March. The move is a case of Facebook wanting to cement their position and ensure that a similar scenario won’t occur in the future. Their upcoming IPO, which could see the company valued up to $100 billion, is also a reason for the purchases; the additional patents may make investors feel reassured if they want to buy shares from the company.
Augmented Reality (AR) has played a part in many brand campaigns, either through smartphones to bring an otherwise static campaign to life, or through large screens which the audience reacts to. Because of this use, augmented reality is usually seen as gimmicky and having no practical use beyond superimposing cartoons or graphics on a otherwise normal scene.
Microsoft Phone and Bing, neither of which has enjoyed a great deal of success after being muscled out by Apple and Google, has released a new app that starts using AR in a way that is both practical and useful. They have released a new version of Bing’s Translator app, which not only has the usual features you would associate with such an app, but gives you the ability to translate text by simply highlighting it with your camera.
All you have to do is point your camera towards the text you want translated on, say a menu or sign, and the app will automatically scan it and offer you a translation, which appears over the original text. One major feature of the apps is that you can also download language packs so that you don’t need a connection to be able to translate. As the Windows Phone team say on their blog:
“Nothing takes the fun out of a foreign vacation faster than an afternoon spent deciphering street signs or pointing randomly at menus (mmm, mystery dinner!)…Now you can point your phone camera at printed text—street sign, dinner menu, train schedule, newspaper headline—and the app will translate it. If I wanted to ask a stranger for directions to the Eiffel Tower, I could also just speak into the phone in English—and wait a moment for the French [translation to be spoken].”
Admittedly, there has been one or two apps in development that have touched upon this, but this is probably the most complete translation app on offer. Alongside AR translations, verbal translation are also available, as mentioned in the earlier quote, which will speak what you said but in a different language. At the moment, the app’s AR translation is supported in six languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Chinese Simplified, while the only one out of that list that isn’t supported by voice translation is Chinese.
Bing’s blog say that they’ve been developing this technology for years, over the last decade to be exact, and it shows. While it won’t reverse the fortunes of Windows Phone, it’s certainly a powerful and useful app that will give budding travelers some food for thought.
If hardware is the backbone to any good smartphone, then apps have become the lifeblood with many consumers judging a device on what they’re able to download for it. Microsoft know this and because it’s playing catchup with its competitors, iPhone and Android, it’s turned towards funding developers to ensure apps are created for them.
The New York Times reports that Microsoft is financing the development of well known apps, costing anything between $60,000 to $600,000 depending on the complexity of the app. Developers are reluctant to dedicate time and money into a platform that is both small and unproven so Microsoft is adapting different methods to incentivise developers. Alongside funding their app’s development, the company also provides developers with free phones and the promise of prime spots in its app stores and in Windows Phone advertising
One such example is the popular location sharing app Foursquare. When Microsoft offered to underwrite a Windows Phone version of the app, Foursquare gladly accepted. While Foursquare has in-house engineers working on iPhone, Android and Blackberry versions of its service, their head of business development, Holger Luedorf told the New York Times that if Microsoft didn’t offer to pay an outside company to do the work, they would “probably not” have developed an app for Windows Phone.
Microsoft only has an estimated 70,000 apps for its Windows Phone platform. Comparing that the iPhone has roughly more than 600,000 apps in its store and Android has almost 400,000 apps, the company is very much trying to bridge the gap between themselves and speed up the process. Their other initiative is teaming up with Nokia to open up an AppCampus in Finland, where over €18 million will be invested into the project over three years, but the company has a lot of work ahead of them if they seriously want to be in a position to challenge the big two.
Despite the number of apps in their marketplace exceeding 65,000, Windows Phone has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to properly compete with the half a million apps offered by Apple and Android.
With the lack of must-have apps available on the Windows Phone combined with the need to increase this number to appeal to consumers, Microsoft and Nokia have announced a deal which will see them invest up to €18 million in a new mobile application development program called ‘AppCampus‘.
The program, which will be led and managed by Aalto University in Finland, will begin in May 2012 and last for three years. It has been set up to foster the creation of innovative and unique apps for the Windows Phone, and by extension, the Nokia platforms Symbian and Series 40.
The scheme will provide training in mobile technology, design and usability and funding for what they define as ”mobile entrepreneurs”, while Aalto University shall contribute by providing premises, coaching services and access to both academic and business networks for potential app developers.
The executive vice president of Nokia Corp Kai Öistämö, said that the partnership between Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University “will allow developers to ideate and monetize business opportunities globally, via both Windows Phone Marketplace and Nokia Store”.
With Nokia now using Windows Phone as its operating system, the scheme will further strengthen the ties between the two companies, but it’s the start of a long battle as they try to convince developers to make apps for them. A survey from app researcher Distimo found that only 37 per cent of developers are keen to make apps for Windows Phone, compared to the 89 per cent interested in the iPhone and 79 per cent interested in Android phones.
Microsoft Research’s Applied Sciences Group (ASG) have been unveiling and demoing a lot of innovative and inspiring projects such as the holoflector (an augmented reality mirror) and Interactive Displays. However, one of their more impressive projects has to be their interactive 3D desktop which you can view without having to wear 3D glasses.
The experiment uses 3D overlays to achieve this effect. Instead of looking at a 3D image, ASG used a transparent screen to overlay what the user is seeing which is a brilliant idea. The transparent screen sits between the user and their hands, so not only can you see your keyboard through it, but you can use your hands to interact with the display.
A Kinect sensor is used to track not only your hands but your eyes as well to create what ASG describe as ”view-dependent, depth corrected gaze”. This interface practically removes the need of a mouse to navigate and select programs. Instead, you just lift your hand from the keyboard and select what you want to move around in mid-air. A 3D grid is used to help the user locate what they’re looking for, which when tightened up, could make for a very intuitive and easy method of interaction.
Obviously, the desktop is experimental but it’s a very exciting development and could be the start of similar transparent displays becoming commercial and finding a place in our homes and offices.
The social network wars are heating up between Google + and Facebook with both sides taking shots at each other, copying features and launching new stuff every couple of days. In some ways the battle is starting to shape up like the old days between Microsoft and Apple when the Redmond based start up controlled the operating system on nearly every computer in the world and Apple was just a niche player but we all know how that particular battle is shaping up in terms of sales and market share. So now that it is looking like Google + is here to stay for the foreseeable future we ask who is going to win the battle and look at the many similarities between Facebook and Microsoft on one side and Google + and Apple on the other…
Facebook = Microsoft
Not only are Microsoft an investor in Facebook but they’re business ideas seem to be rubbing off on the social network. From the early days Microsoft had issues around the way they forced their service on to users and Facebook are trying to do the very same thing. You can’t really export your data from Facebook or move it around easily and Facebook are even starting to do things like ban app developers from linking to other platforms. While Facebook is functional like Windows is for Microsoft you can’t exactly say it is elegant or beautiful. Facebook have never put much of an emphasis on improving things like photos from a design standpoint but the one thing they do is they just work. Just like Microsoft Facebook also has a huge user base and was quickly able to grab market share around the world. Facebook have done this not because they have the best features or the slickest design but because they have everybody there, your entire social graph. As soon as something pops up that could be a threat (Foursquare, daily deals, Friendfeed etc) Facebook just either acquires the company or copies the best features.
Facebook might have started off as the cool place to hangout but it’s lost that in recent times as everybody from parents to grandparents have joined up. It’s no longer a young place but it is a place for everybody to hang out. Just like Windows Facebook is functional and people are used to it. It works. Facebook have also got their revenue streams locked down as a platform in the same way that Microsoft does and it is slowly turning in to a huge cash cow that they will be able to milk for years to come. Developers, businesses and brands are all becoming dependent on Facebook in the same way that businesses all over the world reply on the windows operating system today.
Google Pus = Apple?
Surprisingly Google have launched a product that is as much about beautiful clean design as anything. This isn’t what they normally do but they’ve placed huge emphasis on making the look and feel as clean and elegant as possible. Just like Apple had all the early adopters and techie crowd on board Google + can rely at the start on a group of passionate power users who are screaming from the rooftops about how that product is far superior to Facebook. At the moment just like Apple 15 years ago the general public doesn’t really care about Google + but when you have a group as passionate about it as it’s current users maybe it could start to have a growth trajectory just like Apple’s over the last 10 years.
Apple is doing as well as it is today because it has the best products and it sets the standard and that approach is apparent all across Google +. Everything they do is trying to improve on the current standards that Facebook have set. The games are more beautiful, the photos product is better, they charge developers less money, their data is open and portable and you have better ways of organizing people in to circles. The best product doesn’t always win and Apple struggled for 20 years before they really could take the battle to Microsoft and beat them. Google + will struggle as well but if they stick to their goals of making their product better than anything else out there like Apple did then they have a chance.
The landscape of gaming is changing in front of our very eyes as it becomes influenced by social experiences and the mobile platforms that the games can now be distributed on. In this brilliant video recreation of the classic Godfather movie scene Super Mario who is acting as Don Corleone brings all the characters together from the big gaming families to see what can be done about the new spate of games threatening their family businesses. The humor, production values and scripting are all stunning in this video and it does raise some serious questions about how these old gaming companies can compete in a world where anybody can make a game in their spare bedroom and release it all over the world on multiple platforms. The main target of the video is Angry Birds which started as an app but has quickly morphed in to it’s own franchise with multiple games, movies and merchandise. Nobody knows what will happen in the future with gaming as it becomes more mobile and more social but the characters in the video certainly have their own solution and at this stage it could be the best one yet!
Back in February, when he was a post-graduate intern at Full Sail University in Florida, Foy decided to create a homemade advert showcasing the features for Windows Phone 7. The advert was well received by obtaining 150,000 views and impressed the people at Mircosoft so much that they invited Foy to Mix 2011 in Las Vegas where he unveiled a second homemade advert.
Windows Phone has said that if the video reached 200,000 views, they would turn it into a national advert. So far, it has only reached 118,000 views but Foy has benefited from his work as he was hired as a UX designer at Microsoft. It’s easy to see why Microsoft were so impressed as to hire him, the videos are stylish; make the phone look fun and sleek while showcasing the numerous features the phone has; justifying Microsoft’s decision.
The email wars seem to be hotting up as just a couple of days after Google started their email intervention campaign Microsoft are now back with their own campaign claiming that Gmail has some serious privacy issues. The Gmail man is a fictional character who goes around looking at people’s mail and suggesting ads for them based on what they are doing in their personal lives. The video is actually quite funny and even though it hasn’t been uploaded on an official Microsoft channel it has to have been made by them as they step up their battle with Google. You would have to guess that the ad would cause a court case if it was shared through an official channel or even on TV which is why Microsoft have released it in this way. You do wonder though given that this is hosted on Youtube (Google own Youtube) why they don’t just take it down to stop the damage.
I actually think that it’s a bit of a shame that companies are stooping to this level online rather than actually focusing on making their own products better. For the most part email sucks at the moment and if they put more effort in to making it better rather than making ads ripping their competitors apart the consumer would be much better off. Having said that I do think this is a good piece of creative work and it will certainly get lots of people talking about the privacy issues around Gmail once again.
Early in December 3rd last Microsoft Bing went wallop!
The search engine (which claims to have up to 15% market share, depending on who you listen to, although we have yet to meet ANYONE in Ireland who uses the product - except for the nice people who work in Microsoft and therefore appear to have no choice!) went offline for about 30 minutes last week.
Microsoft has apologised for the outage, which had web surfers be greeted with an error message on the search engine’s site. Microsoft stated that a “configuration change” made to the site during testing was the cause of the outage.
This, it said, had “unfortunate and unintended consequences” which included making the site unavailable. The glitch led to people either being unable to find the site or having their queries returned unanswered, Satya Nadella, one of Microsoft’s senior vice-presidents in its Online Services Division, wrote on the Bing blog.
“As soon as the issue was detected, the change was rolled back, which caused the site to return to normal behaviour,” wrote Nadella, who added that the problem was corrected in about 30 minutes.
Microsoft was looking into the root of the incident in order to take preventative measures to prevent such an incident from happening again, Nadella wrote.
You can read the blog posting (written by Microsoft) here.
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After recently purchasing a number of patents from IBM, Facebook has further strengthened its stance after striking a deal with Microsoft to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it acquired from AOL recently for $550 million.
The social network wars are heating up between 
The landscape of gaming is changing in front of our very eyes as it becomes influenced by social experiences and the mobile platforms that the games can now be distributed on. In this brilliant video recreation of the classic Godfather movie scene Super Mario who is acting as Don Corleone brings all the characters together from the big gaming families to see what can be done about the new spate of games threatening their family businesses. The humor, production values and scripting are all stunning in this video and it does raise some serious questions about how these old gaming companies can compete in a world where anybody can make a game in their spare bedroom and release it all over the world on multiple platforms. The main target of the video is 
The email wars seem to be hotting up as just a couple of days after 
