Lots of people are walking the innovative NE 36th Street Bridge sidewalks -- Driving the Roundabout





Walking the NE 36th Street Bridge is an opportunity to get outside, socialize, exercise and de-stress

Clip of Redmond's First Roundabout In-Action! 

 53s

Have you walked the bridge, yet?   Do you have something to say about it?  

Report, Photo, and Video By Bob Yoder
Photos on 12/15 - 2nd day

Just in time for the holidays: Bing rolls out maps for 22 malls,

Just in time for the holidays: Bing rolls out maps for 22 malls

Just in time for the holidays: Bing rolls out maps for 22 malls
--BY John Cook on Friday, December 10, 2010

Bing's new mall map for Lincoln Square >>>

Holiday shoppers who need to find their way around Bellevue Square, Redmond Town Center, Pacific Place and few other Seattle area malls now have a new online tool to use. Bing this week rolled out a new service which pinpoints store locations within malls, telling shoppers exactly where they can find Macy's at Northgate Mall or Crate & Barrel at University Village.

At this point, Bing has unveiled maps for 19 malls in Washington state, two in New York and one in Massachusetts.  Read more...

READ MORE >>

2.5M Kinect units sold in 25 days, By John Cook

Microsoft Blog/John Cook

 2.5M Kinect units sold in 25 days

 Microsoft may just have a holiday hit on its hands -- and it is called Kinect. The company announced today that the Xbox 360 accessory, which allows users to control game play through body motion and voice commands, has sold more than 2.5 million units since its launch 25 days ago.

That's a pretty good start, with the company reaffirming in today's press release that it is on track to hit the holiday goal of five million units sold. In fact, Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb notes that it took Apple twice as long (two months) to sell two million iPads.    Read More. ...

By John Cook
Microsoft Blog, 11/29

Windows Phone 7 outlasts iPhone, Android ... on a BBQ

Windows Phone 7 outlasts iPhone, Android ... on a BBQ:



"Not sure if this will factor into anyone's purchasing decisions, but it looks like Windows Phone 7 is the smartphone for you -- at least if you have a habit of leaving your smartphone unattended on a flaming grill.

EZ Grill, a Bellevue-based disposable BBQ company, worked with Seattle-based social media agency Banyan Branch to pit a new HTC Surround, running the Microsoft operating system, against the Android G2 and iPhone 4 in a test of endurance on the grill. As you can see in the video above, Windows Phone won easily.

No doubt this will soon be added to the list of official specs, right next to battery life.

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash

Editor's Note:  This post was picked up by KIRO 7 on their "Daily Double Shot" to fun and interesting links.

Deal gives Microsoft patents on smart airbags, pothole avoidance

Smart airbags, pothole avoidance - from Todd Bishop's Tech Flash

Deal gives Microsoft patents on smart airbags, pothole avoidance:

"Microsoft's agreement to acquire Canesta Inc., confirmed late last week, will give the Redmond company 44 patents and about two dozen patent applications covering various ways of enhancing a computer's senses -- including gesture recognition, depth perception, and real-time camera and sensor calibration. Taken as a whole, they show how Microsoft could give users new ways of interacting with future versions of its PC and mobile operating systems.

And then there's the smart airbag and the pothole-avoidance system."

READ MORE

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash,11/2

A big quarter for Microsoft, from Office 2010 to 'Halo: Reach'

A big quarter for Microsoft, from Office 2010 to 'Halo: Reach':

"The latest installment in the blockbuster Halo video-game franchise generated a gigantic $350 million in revenue for Microsoft in its most recent quarter. But the bottom line in the company's Online Services Division continued to look like the aftermath of a 'Halo: Reach' firefight -- ending up some $560 million in the red.

Those were among the highs and lows in the company's latest quarter, underscoring the challenges that Microsoft faces in the consumer market. But the company's core business technology groups more than picked up the slack -- leading Microsoft to significantly top expectations for overall revenues and profits.

Continue reading for a breakdown of Microsoft's divisional results, with charts."

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash

Lake Washington Schools Foundation receives $130,000 Microsoft grant.

LAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOLS FOUNDATION NEWS.

The Lake Washington Schools Foundation (LWSF) was established five years ago to promote academic excellence for all students in the District. This summer, our donors made it possible for 33 at-risk students to attend summer school. In conjunction with the Lake Washington School District, we are pleased to announce a $130,000 grant from Microsoft to develop science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs similar to other successful STEM programs in the country. Starting in the spring of 2011, LWSF will fund classroom and school grants that focus on helping each school reach the goals they set for their Continuous Improvement Plan. This fall, each school in the District is eligible to receive up to $1500 worth of grant funds. Please contact us for more specific information about the one-time fall grant application process.

"Mustang Weekly", 9/26/2010

Q&A: Why Microsoft surrendered 7 million blogs to WordPress.com

Q&A: Why Microsoft surrendered 7 million blogs to WordPress.com:

"Microsoft surprised many people in the tech community today when it announced plans to end work on its 6-year-old Windows Live Spaces blogging platform, helping its users migrate to the rival WordPress.com.

More surprising: The arrangement comes with no financial compensation, no marketing agreements, and no commitments that WordPress.com use Windows Live ID or Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud-computing platform.

So why do it?" Read More >>

By Todd Bishop
TechFlash

Storm title a big win for Bing

Story by Todd Bishop of Tech Flash (click link)

Storm title a big win for Bing

Video: Microsoft Double Rainbow

From Todd Bishop -

Fans of Paul "Bear" Vasquez and his legendary reaction to seeing two rainbows across Yosemite National Park may find it a little tough to watch this promotional reenactment of the famous Internet video for Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery software. Then again, it is pretty clever as a marketing trick.



By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash Microsoft Blog

TEDxRedmond's Youth Conference - "The Power To Be Students!"

Saturday, 2:30 pm, September 18th, 2010
Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond WA
Theme: Power to the Students!  

All youth Grades 6-10 are invited

http://www.tedxredmond.com/

Or, you may watch TEDxRedmond streamed live online and organize a Meetup (watching the stream with a group of similarly interested people) around it at http://www.meetup.com/TEDxRedmond/  .

 Below, are two of seventeen TEDxRedmond Sponsored Speakers!

JORDON ROMERO is the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest at age 14

BRIGITTE BERMAN - experienced bullying, spoke on Good
Morning America, testified to Congress, youngest person to
participate in NASA Space Mission.

Attendees should sign up at the TEDxRedmond Attend page (www.tedxredmond.com/attend.html , and arrive at the Microsoft Conference Center at 2:30 PM.

What you'll find at the TEDxRedmond event (read more)  

Student Innovation Contest - Microsoft rethinks the keyboard

Microsoft rethinks the keyboard:

"Microsoft rethinks the keyboard"

Is there a more efficient way to input text, graphics and images on desktop computers? That's the latest brainstorm from Microsoft Hardware, which has begun showing off a new touch-based LCD 'Adaptive Keyboard' as part of the Student Innovation Contest." Read More.  Watch Video

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash

Microsoft is pruning more jobs

Microsoft is pruning more jobs.

Microsoft is preparing to make a new round of job cuts as early as tomorrow, according to people with knowledge of the situation, but the unconfirmed numbers we're hearing are relatively small in the scheme of things -- far less than the thousands of jobs cut by the company last year.  Complete article

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash
7/6

7 Reason Why the Window 7 Phone is THE iPhone Killer

7 Reasons Why The Windows 7 Phone Is THE iPhone Killer

The sleeping giant is back. With yesterday’s announcement of the new Windows Phone 7 I believe we are seeing the rise of Phone 7 as the iPhone killer. Forget Android, this is the one you need to pay attention to.

Read More
Posted by Jamie Riddell on March 16th, 2010

thesledgehammer said...on 6/17

As much as I'd really like to see MS do well in this market, there's one big reason that Windows Phone 7 is doomed to be an also-ran: It should have been out at least a year ago. When it comes out it'll not only have to fight against the iPhone, but it'll also have Android (which, quite frankly, has stolen a big chunk of WP7's potential users already) to deal with. And a good chunk of the iPhone users WP7 is targeting are either a) Apple diehards (see also: MS haters) or b) people who bought their iPhones as fashion accessories. A good chunk of the people in between those have already jumped ship to Android (myself included, having purchased an EVO to replace my aging WM6 phone a couple of weeks ago)

I actually think WP7 looks quite nice, and I'd really like to see it do well. I just happen to think that it's chasing after a horse that's already long since left the barn, and it's going to be a serious uphill battle for it to ever become anything but a niche player in the market.

-Brian
http://thesledgehammer.wordpress.com/

Stephen Colbert went on an hilarious Bing binge last night

Stephen Colbert went on a hilarious Bing binge last night, with the comedian earning a $2,500 charitable pledge from Microsoft each time he uttered the name of company's search engine. CNET's Ina Fried notes that Colbert managed to mention Bing some 40 times, earning $100,000 for the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund. Here's the opening clip.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Charity Begins at 11:30
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

I am sure Microsoft wasn't too happy about this zinger from Colbert: "By the way, Bing is a great Web site for doing Internet searches. I know that because I Googled it." Later in the broadcast, the show's producers bleeped out a Colbert cuss word with a "Bing" and then showed the Bing logo numerous times as an actor playing BP CEO Tony Hayward gets tossed off a building and run over by a SUV driven by a sea turtle.

Read More

By John Cook
Tech Flash

Queen of Jordan and scores of CEO's at Microsoft campus May 19

Queen of Jordan and a number of corporate titans are on Microsoft campus today, Wednesday
 

So a queen, a secretary and a salesman walk into a conference room ... and how does the rest of it go?

More than a hundred chief executives will find out Wednesday, at Microsoft's 14th annual CEO Summit in Redmond.  (Photo:  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer)

The attendee mix includes the Queen of Jordan Rania Al Abdullah, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and a number of corporate titans: Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Wal-Mart Chairman Rob Walton, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon and IAC CEO Barry Diller.   Read More.....

Report By Sharon Pian Chan
Seattle Times Technology reporter

Bill Gates, The Lusty Lady and other top stories of the month

Bill Gates, The Lusty Lady and other top stories of the month:

"It was another busy month here at TechFlash. In case you missed out, here are the top 10 stories of the month in terms of page views.  Thanks again to everyone for reading."

Read the top stories

By John Cook
Tech Flash
May 1

Windows saves the day, but the rest of Microsoft business is mostly blah.

Microsoft's strong earnings report today was fueled by solid sales of Windows 7, but digging deeper into the numbers, it's clear that many of the company's businesses have seen better quarters. Despite a a big in advertising revenue, increased expenses pushed the company's online business ever deeper into the red. And Microsoft's business-software units continued to show the effects of sluggish corporate spending.
Here's a division-by-division breakdown of the results...Read More

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash
4/22

New study says 8.4% of jobs in Wash. state depend on Microsoft.

New study says 8.4% of jobs in Wash. state depend on Microsoft

"Microsoft's growth and the decline of other industries have pushed the Redmond company's economic impact in its home state to record levels, according to a University of Washington report released today. The study, funded by Microsoft, says the company..."  Read More

By Todd Bishop
Tech Flash

Multitasking on iPhone, at last

Multitasking on iPhone, at last:

"Multitasking on iPhone, at last. Down at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters this morning, CEO Steve Jobs announced something that many iPhone application developers have been waiting a long time for: Multitasking for third-party apps.

'Happy day,' said Bryan Trussel, the CEO of Redmond-based Glympse, when I called and told him the news. 'We’ve been lighting incense and worshipping at the altar of Apple to get that,' he joked." ....more

Todd Bishop
Tech Flash