Microsoft Max feed aggregator

Microsoft just released a new desktop feed aggregator, codename Max. Max features news displayed in a newspaper layout and two-pane interface, a bit different approach than many other aggregators on the market. MSN Filter is built-in, helping you follow the hottest news in lifestyle, music, TV, sports, technology, and movies. You can share your favorite feed items with the Filter community to help influence the recommended reading of others. Microsoft Max is available for Windows XP SP2 and above (including Media Center). It takes advantage of some of the latest hardware and software, including .NET Framework 3.0 RC1 and…

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant on Microsoft core values

I just found out about two clips from The Office stars Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant about life as a Microsoft employee (thanks Kevin!). The same jokes hold true for most big corporations, but listening to Ricky’s responses to Microsoft’s core values really cracked me up. Ricky Gervais interviewed on Microsoft core values Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant conduct a Microsoft performance review My favorite clip is Ricky’s response to being “open and respectful in all of our dealings.” He recommends firing people with consistently bad ideas and making your good ideas work for you….

Zune blogs powered by TypePad

The two Microsoft blogs discussing the upcoming Zune product suite, Zune Insider and Madison and Pine, are powered by Six Apart’s TypePad blogging software. That’s Apache on Linux using Perl and PostgreSQL. Microsoft is heavily into “dogfooding” everything, from Windows Mobile smartphones to the latest build of Vista. It’s good to see the Xbox team step out and blaze their own path….

IE7 RSS adds mark all read, refresh at will

Internet Explorer 7 beta 3 is now available and includes some new feed reading features for users who like to browse their feed items in the browser. The new beta includes a refresh all option, mark all feed items read, and a few other final tweaks on the path to ship. Sometimes it’s not fun to obey the machine and its update schedule. Advanced information hungry readers can now update all feeds at once, grabbing the latest content before disconnecting from the Internet or to be absolutely sure you’re caught up on all your feeds. You can now mark a…

Vic Gundotra leaves Microsoft

Vic Gundotra, Scoble’s (former) boss’ boss, is leaving Microsoft to join Google. Vic is taking a year off to allow his non-compete to elapse without legal issue. Vic is a general manager for platform evangelism and helped build Channel 9, 10, and other general developer evangelism efforts within Microsoft….

Apple Store checks out with Windows

Apple is looking for ways to cut down on wait times at its stores’ checkout lines and roaming WiFi-enabled processing stations in the hands of each employee may be the answer. The same employee helping you pick out the right set of headphones for your iPod can scan product barcodes and take payments via credit card right on the spot. Your receipt will sent to you via e-mail just in case you need to make a return or file an expense report. The handheld devices Apple uses in its store are powered by Windows. More information is available in…

Bill Gates leaving Microsoft in 2008

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft to spend more time on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Microsoft announced the two year transition plan for Gates shortly after the close of U.S. financial markets. Ray Ozzie will assume Bill Gates’ job title of Chief Software Architect after recently completing his team’s integration of Groove Networks into Office 2007. Bill Gates will be 52 years-old when he steps down from Microsoft and he is currently worth about $50 billion according to Forbes. The current life expectancy for a male in the United States…

Windows Live Product Reader

Many people like to keep up with new product announcements and launches across Microsoft but wish they had an aggregated way to keep track of it all. Meet MSReadr! MSReadr is an information aggregator for all of the product team blogs across Microsoft’s Windows Live division. Search, Messenger, Mail, they’re all in there. You can view the latest news right in your browser, subscribe to one feed for updates from all of the blogs, or add the site’s OPML file as a reading list. The site is powered by Python and Sam Ruby’s branch of Planet Planet. The domain…

Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft for a Silicon Valley startup

Reports are coming in from the Vloggercon conference about Robert Scoble’s latest career move. According to Beet.TV and a few other verbal sources who were at the conference Scoble will publicly announce he is leaving Microsoft within the next few days and joining Silicon Valley startup PodTech.net as a videoblogger. Scoble has been at Microsoft for about three years and plans to move back to the Bay Area. Robert Scoble was employed as a videoblogger at Microsoft’s Channel 9 developer center, interviewing teams across Microsoft on their latest releases and features. Later in his Microsoft career Scoble’s popular blog became…

Microsoft Research open house tomorrow in Mountain View

Microsoft Research will be demonstrating some of their projects tomorrow afternoon in Mountain View. It’s a total geek science fair, with futuristic ideas such as recording and indexing everything you see and hear throughout the day, auto-classifying blog content, or searching the web based on a cameraphone picture. The demo room is open from 2-4 p.m. for browsing. I’ll be on the lookout for a tricorder or new textual analysis of blogs. Tags: msresearch…